Evil Knockin' at My Door
by Rhearenee
Summary: She should have known that meddling with unknown kinjutsu would have it's consequences. She should have kept her feelings in check and she should have known that entering into a power play with one of the most powerful shinobi of all time wouldn't end well. But dammit, she won't let him have the last word.
1. The Devil's Back

_Hiya! So this crazy idea came to me in a dream, where I was this Sakura Lucy mix fighting Akatsuki. It was just such a great concept that I had to write it down. Then as I went on planning I realized that the action scene in my dream needs some pretext, thus this chapter. I'll admit that it went out of control, it wasn't supposed to be so long, but it was coming out so easily that I hardly saw the word count go up. In the end I didn't even finish the whole pretext part (due to a lack of time because of friends and other stuff), but if I had I'm afraid it would have been near 30k of words._

 _So, this is going to be like a mix between Fairy Tail, a little bit of Bleach and of course Naruto. It's canon up until the arc where Gaara was saved from death, after that it's an AU, where the 4th war didn't happen, due to some circumstances, most of the Akatsuki are alive and so on. I'll try to explain the burnt of it through story. This also probably would take place during what was the Blank Period in canon, so Sakura is somewhere around 19 or 20 years old. I also had intended for this to be neutral, just a simple pretext, but when I was going through the story in my head, somewhere along the way I threw away my inhibitions and made this MadaSaku (at this point I should stop lying to myself and admit that I like it, despite me still thinking that this pairing is weird and me very much preferring not to ship Madara with anyone). But whatever, if you're in for some MadaSaku I'm glad to provide._

 _On top of everything I also intend for this to be a birthday fic to myself. I usually draw something for my birthday, but for a change I decided to write something. Also the song Sweet Things by The Pretty Reckless was a huge inspirational add on to this story (also gave this story it's name), so check it out if you want.  
_

 _Quick disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the Naruto world._

* * *

"Would you stop that?"

"Why?" drawled her companion, continuing to prance around the room in a restless manner, every now and then picking up an object or other she had lying around in her living room.

"Because it's distracting and annoying," she growled in exasperation. It had already been a month and he still found interest in the most of mundane things, either nagging her about them or simply being handsy with things that weren't supposed to be touched and frankly Sakura was tired of it. For someone who supposedly was over a hundred years old, he was acting way too childishly. She suspected after the third time he actually did that on purpose just to test her patience.

Taking a seat opposite hers Madara crossed his arms and levelled her with an even glare. "You just don't understand."

Snapping her eyes up from her paper she met his gaze. Her grip on her pen increased. "I understand. What I don't get is why you have to be here right now. I'm trying to study and your fiddling around with my shit is testing my patience."

Two weeks ever since she made her mistake. Two weeks she had to suffer the consequences of her hasty choice. Even though they had made an agreement the first time she accidentally summoned him, that he would help her train to get stronger and in turn she would let him come into the real world, he had a penchant for snatching the key from her and hiding it, prolonging his stay in the real world needlessly, straining her chakra reserves greatly. She wasn't lying when she said that she understood his reasons for doing so. After all, if she didn't, she would send him back the first chance she got. She could sense the key, get it back (although that part sometimes was tricky) and send him back to the afterlife. She was being patient, but he was making her regret her decision.

Madara propped his head on his arm, the right side of his face becoming obscured by his hair immediately and lazily surveyed the room, and in turn ignoring her heated stare. "Believe me if I could I wouldn't stay here. I have a lot more important things to do than watch you scribble on paper."

Oh yes, the infamous rule that the spirit couldn't stray too far away from their summoner unless the spirit wanted to break the contract, become corrupt and lose their sense of self. Now Sakura didn't wish that on anyone, she had seen enough corrupt ghosts around Konoha and it wasn't a pleasant sight. She wouldn't even wish it upon the warmonger in front of her, despite her knowing the crimes he had done in the past, the treason he had committed against the village and the people he had killed. She supposed she should be more strict towards someone who was considered evil incarnate in the past, but that was way before her time and she simply lacked the energy to hate deeds that were history. After all those deeds did mould the village as it was now, and he hadn't proved to be dangerous just yet. Didn't mean she wasn't being wary.

"Oh, here's a suggestion: go back from where you came from?" she recommended, sarcasm lacing her voice. "You could have done that hours ago."

"Not happening. As boring as it is to just kill time needlessly around here, it's a lot better than go back to _there_ and suffer in the endless grey not being able to feel a thing. I'm not that masochistic." He turned to her with a small smirk across his lips.

Sakura frowned, but decided not to argue further and turned back to her paper. Her shishou had given her three days to prepare for the test she was giving her about different poisons and their antidotes. While Sakura had already learnt the burnt of what Tsunade had to offer her when she was twelve and thirteen, her shisou still came up with things to keep Sakura on her toes. Poisons were one of Sakura's specialities and Tsunade wanted to test her knowledge with practical demonstrations on Sakura herself. So unless Sakura wanted to accidentally poison herself with shit she had no idea how to get rid of she had to memorize everything, again, there was about known, rare poisons and their antidotes.

She was dead beat tired. After a morning shift in the hospital, short sparring session with Madara and four hours of studying, not to mention that she still had to supply chakra to Madara to keep him in the real world, Sakura felt like passing out from either exhaustion or chakra depletion. The bastard didn't care if she passed out from chakra depletion. Since she had the upper hand in this situation she had yet to do so in front of him, always managing to send him back before it happened. She wasn't sure what would happen if it were to happen. Would he be sent back forcefully or would he be stuck?

There were so many unknowns about this kinjutsu. Even when she first found the ratty scroll the kinjutsu had been written in, it hadn't been very clear with the rules. Heck, half of the things she did know about the mechanics of this jutsu she had found out from Madara. Not to mention, that not many people were aware of the existence of such a jutsu.

All she knew was that with it you could summon dead people as spirits, create contracts with them, which would then materialize in a key and later you could use that key to send the spirit back. If the key was broken the contract was lost and that person had lost their chance at coming back to the real world for forever, unless someone could recreate their key again. As far as she knew recreating someone's key was impossible unless the recreator had an impeccable memory and was able to remember how the key looked like exactly.

When she first enacted the jutsu she wasn't even sure what it would do. Stupid of her, but she had been desperate. After her last failure in her mission with Team 7 - Naruto and Sasuke - she had vowed to get better, to never have it so that they would have to save her, that next time she would save them. It wasn't the first time she promised herself that, but this time she really meant it. In her desperation and frustration to get stronger she had been reckless, asking for more strength, for someone to listen to her. It had been more like a prayer than anything. She hadn't know that she was supposed to ask for a specific person when enacting the jutsu, the scroll didn't specify, but still someone had answered her call in the void.

It was probably her rotten luck, that it was one of the most feared shinobi in the history who had answered her call.

At first Sakura had wanted to back out of everything she had done once she realized who she had summoned, but somehow he had persuaded her not to do so by offering to help her. It had been an odd suggestion that had left her speechless, but her sheer determination to be better than her teammates had won and she had accepted, thinking that by getting help from someone who could be on par with the Shodai Hokage was a once in a lifetime offer.

Raising her eyes from her paper for a moment she gave the said shinobi a once over. Without his red armour he usually came with into this world he looked like a black stain in her cream coloured interior. Despite that he looked serene, such a crass contrast from what she had heard abut him. Sometimes she did have a hard time believing that the person in front of her really was the despicable evil she had read about in history books. All of the tales deciphered him as this angry, insane fiend, who wanted to destroy the village, regardless of being one of its founders. For as long as they had been together she had never seen him lose his temper, the insane part was questionable, but the fact remained – everyday she saw a different Madara that of the history books.

While Sakura had been too engrossed in her work Madara had taken a couple of her empty papers and a pen from her pencil case and was currently writing something down. This wasn't something that happened often, so Sakura was naturally curious.

Discreetly leaning forward she caught a glimpse of what he was writing. As always his penmanship was neat and precise. Sakura looked down at her own paper and frowned. Hers looked like scratches across the paper. She had to admit that after years of working in the hospital she had developed a doctors hand. Still it felt so unfair. And what's this? - he even had drawn something on the side of the paper. Even when upside down, from her perspective, it was a lot better than anything she could draw.

"What are you writing?" In the end her curiosity took control of her and the question slipped out.

Without looking up from his work he replied, "Something for later." Sakura wanted to question him further, but he beat her to it, explaining things. "In Limbo you tend to forget things, thoughts become muddled together. It's annoying." He grimaced in distaste. "Writing things down helps remembering."

"Ah." She supposed that made sense. A week ago he had been writing something as well, but back then she was too busy with her own agenda to even pay attention, and yesterday when she had been cleaning the dust from her bookshelves she had found that same paper perched on top of her books. At first she had been confused, nothing that had been jotted down made sense to her. Only when halfway through it she had realized that they were a mess of memories and other things. After that things had clicked into place and like burned she had put the paper back in its place. She didn't dare mention this to Madara.

She continued to watch him draw what looked to be an object of some sort. It was quick and messy, but it still looked decipherable. "That's pretty good."

Blankly for a moment he looked up to her before continuing his task. "It's not."

Stunned for a moment Sakura wondered what to say next. As far as she knew Madara had never admitted to being bad at something so openly. Sometimes she even had to wonder if he even was bad at anything – he did everything so confidently that the question never came up. Then again, she presumed, that no one could be perfect at everything.

"It's still better than anything I could draw," she growled dejectedly and unknowingly her grip on her pen increased.

"You're just incompetent."

Her pen snapped in half. She opened her mouth to object, but was cut off when Madara showed his papers almost in her face.

"Read these carefully."

Glowering she took them a lot more forcefully than was needed. "I thought you were writing these for yourself."

"I am, but they're also instructions for you."

Interested she took a peak. She had crumbled the paper a bit with her haste movements, but the layout of the writing and the drawing was still neat and understandable.

 _Infinite Tsukuyomi._ Huh? Now that's an interesting title. Skimming through the paragraphs she realized that she had no clue what it all was supposed to mean. It looked to be a jutsu of some kind, but the requirements for it were insane. Unattainable even, or simply non-existent.

Deciding that she doesn't have time to indulge herself in his delusions she put the papers aside. Growling at her broken pen she pulled out a new one from her pencil case. She cursed when the next word she wrote was in green. Fucking great, she took her coloured pen.

"Sakura?"

"What?" She rummaged through her mess of a pencil case for her other pen, missing the glare Madara was sending her way.

"Pay attention." His voice held more bite than usual.

Sakura raised her head to see what crawled up his ass, but blanched when she was met with the sharingan. Uh oh. She averted her gaze, opting to look somewhere past him. Enough encounters with Sasuke's and Kakashi's sharingan had taught her a lesson to never underestimate a dojutsu. He hadn't used it on her yet, more like intimidated her every now and then with it, but she wasn't about to test her chances. In her aversion she also noticed that her missing spare pen was still held by Madara.

"Can I have my pen back, please?"

"Did you read the instructions, Sakura?"

Jeez, why was he so hell bent on that crap? Ignoring his question she reached for her pen, but he moved it away from her grasp. "Just gimme back my pen, I need to finish this!" When she reached for it again, this time splaying herself almost all over the table he moved it away from her again. Stupidly she turned to face him again, annoyance splayed all over her face. She realized her mistake when the red of the sharingan stared back at her. For a moment she expected to be pulled into a painful genjutsu, but when nothing happened she relaxed, venturing back into annoyance.

"Read it and memorize it. I'm not going to play around with you."

Sakura had to snort at his words. Still she ignored them and reached for her pen, this time almost getting it before it was moved out of her way. Growling she leaned back in her seat before she made a fool out of herself by spreading herself across the table like a table cloth and crumpled all her hard work.

"That's rich coming from you."

"I'm serious, Sakura. Read it. Or did you really think that I only came here to offer my _services_ to a weak and pathetic girl?" He switched the pen to his other hand, crossing his hands he leaned back in his seat.

Hurt Sakura met his red eyes dead on, mimicking his pose she crossed her arms across her chest as well. She tried to appear as intimidating as him, but, frankly, she didn't feel it. She thought that they had moved past the demeaning insults. Apparently not. It still was a sore subject for her. Ever since she realized how weak and useless she had been at the start of her academy days she had been trying to fix it, but it was hard to do when her competition were Naruto and Sasuke. She was never good enough, never strong enough. And he just rubbed it all in her face. Fucking asshole. She didn't need a reminder.

In the end she had to avert her eyes and bite her lip just to try and keep it together. That little comment had cut deep. During the first week when she had summoned him little statements like that were common, but she had long since learned to ignore biting words like that. Her opponents underestimated her all the time. Though now it was different. She had learned to trust him (even though she probably shouldn't) and listen to what he taught her (even if he only did it because she threatened to break the key). She thought that it was their unspoken agreement to work together, thus respect each other.

She heard him sigh after a moment and she saw the pen being placed in front of her. Surprised she snapped her head back to face him. Madara had reverted back to his lazy position – arms on the table, head resting against his palm only this time his eyes were closed. "Just read it, Sakura. Please. It's important."

Baffled, she didn't know what to say. Woodenly she picked up her pen. She had no idea it was so important to him that he would resort to using pleasantry words with her, which he had never done before. What she didn't understand was why. Why was such nonsense important to him? What was his goal here? She had never thought to ask, too engrossed in her own agenda. He never supplied either, until now that is and even then it was unclear.

"I-" Sakura cleared her throat. "I'll take a look at it, but later. I really have to study now and my head is already practically smoking from memorizing all of these poisons." Without gauging his reaction she buried herself back in her work. He didn't say anything either, so no soon after she lost herself in her work, their argument the last thing on her mind.

After a while Sakura started to feel woozy again. The letters on her paper started to swim and blur. The pinkette groaned and slammed her head on the table with a dull thud. Even if having Madara around had it's advantages it was also a huge disadvantage. The constant drain on her chakra for one. God, she just might have to stop playing nice and just send him back. This was torture. Why was she even being nice to him?

"Please, just give me the key?" she tried weakly, her voice slightly muffled, knowing that it won't have much of an effect. Even though the key was supposed to be her possession, something that she was supposed to keep with her at all times, he always snatched it from her and hid it, though it wasn't a mystery to her that he always hid it on his person. He just knew that she was slightly afraid of him and kept a distance. Even when in spirit form his chakra was potent and smouldering. It unnerved her.

"Hm?"

Yep, there it was – the nonchalant acknowledgement which soon was followed by full on indifference. Sakura sighed, knowing that she would have to do this the hard way. Again. Even if he was stronger she still had the advantage of being able to injure him fatally, thus forcing him go back to the spirit world to mend. It wasn't easy to achieve that and some part of her suspected that he even let her to get a hit on him, but it got the job done and she wasn't complaining.

This time, though, the problem was that she exactly didn't possess enough chakra to deliver such a blow, let alone scuffle around to try and even get that blow. She had been too busy studying and had lost sense of time, letting him linger around for too long.

She pushed herself up from the chair, stretching her stiff arm muscles on the way. "Are we gonna do this the easy way or the hard way?"

Madara curiously raised an eyebrow, leaning back in his seat.

From that expression alone Sakura understood that it's going to be the hard way. Nothing ever was easy with him. Asshole.

She expanded her senses and quickly concluded that he had hidden the key in his sleeve this time. She might not have enough chakra to battle him right now, but she still can get the key and send him back. That shouldn't be that hard, right?

Walking around the table, she schooled her expression into something neutral and without warning grabbed his left arm. The lukewarm temperature of his skin never ceased to unsettle her. Spirits were colder than humans. She pushed down his sleeve, expecting for the key to fall out, but was met with nothing.

"Looking for this?"

Sakura raised her head. He was holding the dark key in his other hand, right in front of her face, mirth dancing across his face. She reached for it, but he moved it out of her reach.

"Stop this. This isn't funny. We already did this once." She wasn't in the mood to play games or prolong this any longer than it was supposed to be. She could already see faint stars swimming across her vision from the exhaustion.

She reached for it again only for him to move it further away from her. By now he had moved it far away enough that she was nearly leaning over him, trying to reach it, greatly invading his personal space. Yea, no she wasn't going to do this. It was already uncomfortable as it was, she wasn't about to make it weird to boot. Stepping back she let go of his hand, glaring daggers at him.

He absently fixed his sleeve, the sly smirk still on his face and crossed his arms again, hiding the key back where it first was. "What's the matter, Sakura? Already giving up?"

The pinkette narrowed her eyes, scowling. "I don't know at what angle your playing at, but I'm not about to be made a fool out of." He clearly was planning something, usually she couldn't get a hold of him so easily, he always managed to avoid her hands, which could mean that he let her. It only served to fuel her irritation more. He clearly enjoyed getting a rise out of her.

"There's no angle. All you have to do is come and take the key." He waved the key around to emphasize his point, mocking her with it.

Sakura growled. Was this supposed to be a considerate action? Come and get the key instead of fighting him over it? All because she was already so low on chakra? Yeah, no. When he stops making everything a challenge then she might consider him as a compassionate person. Maybe. She doubted he could ever stop being an asshole. That seemed to be an Uchiha family trait. Sasuke was also a prime example of it.

Since she wasn't going to resort to begging she supposed that she'll have to find a new way to get it.

She had been thinking for so long that Madara sighed and got up from his seat, taking his leave to the kitchen area. "You're so boring, Sakura."

Her irritation levels were about at the peak after that little comment. Just for that she will have to resort to dirty tricks. Quickly skimming over her table her eyes zeroed in on the pieces of paper they had an argument over just an hour before. Oh? Now she definitely can't let a chance like this pass up. Whatever nonsense was written in them was clearly important to him and important to be read by her. It would be awfully unsightly if they were to suddenly...oh, how about: be ripped to pieces?

Plan in mind Sakura grinned mischievously and snatched up the papers. "Oh, Madara?" She made sure her voice sounded sickly sweet, with an undertone of crazy fangirl.

When he turned his head, an annoyed grimace on his face (Oh yea, he didn't like that. She has to remember to use that tone more often.) she mockingly waved the papers and went on to show that she was ready to rip them apart. When he did a double take it took all of her willpower not to burst into laughter. Oh, God she didn't expect such a reaction. That was picture worthy. In the end the momentary shock on his face had left her giggling like a dumb school girl. Priceless.

"What are you doing?" Amidst her laughter she hadn't noticed him approach her and loom over her looking like Death itself.

She probably should have felt scared from the way he was glaring daggers at her, but all she could see was that surprised reaction. Honest to God, she had been trying to get different reactions from him for a while now, surprise being one of them. She knew she probably was poking the devil with a stick with such a goal, but she had to get her entertainment from somewhere as well. Besides, it wasn't like she was going to let him get away with the constant mockery of her.

Madara clearly wasn't amused if his sour expression was anything to go by. When he reached for the papers she moved them away.

Sakura almost burst into an another fit of giggles of how the tables had been turned now. She bit her lip, trying to keep her expression neutral. She was going to enjoy this moment as much as she could. Not everyday she could get such a clear upper hand on Madara Uchiha.

"Sakura, I thought that we established that that was imperative," he growled, his eyes bleeding red again.

By now Sakura wasn't in the right mind to fear the sharingan. It wasn't like he could hurt her either, unless he wanted his key to get broken 'cause she sure as hell will do it if he injures her greatly. She grinned sweetly. "Well, yes, but for me not having to suffer from chakra depletion is also important." She waved the pieces around again, right under his nose. "So unless you want these to find home in my trash can, ripped to pieces, I would give the key back now."

With his height advantage alone he could easily get them, but the price would be that they would be ripped to pieces, she won't let go so easily. She couldn't stop grinning in glee.

"Fine. Rip it apart."

Sakura visibly deflated seeing him turn around and continue his merry way, not a care in the world.

W-what? How could he do this? This was her chance to finally best him by her own and get the damn key. She spluttered around, aghast.

"I can always write it again, you know, it's something I will never forget. Though, it would be a shame that you wouldn't learn it sooner." This time Madara was smirking in mirth, having turned the situation back in his favour.

Sakura cursed rather colourfully and slammed the stupid papers back on the table. It's not as desirable to rip them apart now. "One way or another I'm going to get that key." She pointed her finger at him, snarling."I'll be damned if I let this suffering continue, you sadistic fuck." The edges of her vision were already turning black. By this point she was standing from sheer determination alone.

Madara revelled in her anger which only edged Sakura on. He was looking down on her. She just knew. Whenever it seemed like she's finally won, he pulls shit like this.

Practically stomping after him she grabbed his wrist, stopping him in his tracks. "Give. Me. The. Damn. Key." she grit out, barely keeping her anger in check. She should just hit him. Yea, that sounds like a great idea. Sock him right in the face.

So she did just that, despite lacking chakra to enhance her punch.

Unfortunately for her Madara simply sidestepped, freeing his hand from hers in the process. "You can do better than that. That was just pathetic."

Sakura felt her eye twitch. Of course she could, but she couldn't just magically summon more chakra out of nowhere to drive the punch home. Oh, how she wanted to yell that, but she wasn't going to make up excuses even when she had a damn good one. She's going to get back what's rightfully hers and send the damn bastard back to the shithole he came from, without stupid excuses.

Glowering at him she refused to answer his taunts, instead she expanded her senses to find where he had hid the key. Surprisingly enough, he hadn't hid it at all – he was holding it. She just failed to notice 'cause of her drowsiness, plus the black of the key blended with his black gloves. From experience she knew that grabbing it straight out won't work. Currently her moves were too sluggish to outwit him like that and hitting obviously won't work as well. She wasn't going to resort to begging and considering that asking nicely didn't work the first time, she doubted it would work for a second time. So, what the hell were her options here? Fall over and hope he goes back 'cause she's not there to keep the connection going? Yeah, no. She was going to chew off her own arm before she lets herself fall in front of him.

What can she do? What's her one advantage over him she has right now? She could always try closing the door forcefully, but she wasn't sure how that would work. Activating her Byakugo seal would only prolong this situation, so that was a no go.

She eyed him, standing in front of her in his usual stance, the key she was so desperately trying get only a reach away. He had his ever present smirk on his face, his single uncovered eye shining in laughter.

"Giving up? Such a shame." The disappointment was clear in his voice.

He was about to hide the key again when Sakura got an idea. It was insane, stupid and way over their set up boundaries, but she wasn't going to lose this.

She saw that when she reached out he thought that she was going for the key again, already moving it away from her hands. His mistake. Sakura grinned. Instead she surprised him by grabbing him by the front of his shirt, pulling him down to her level and kissing him. It was fast and awkward, but it got the job done. During his momentous surprise with her other free hand she took the key and stepped away.

She was so embarrassed that she didn't even raise her head to gauge his reaction. With the key finally in her possession she waved it in a half triangle motion that closed the door. The relief was instantaneous, though she was shaking, her knees weak.

Sakura dropped on the floor, face blazing, heart pounding, the key still in her hand. It was warming up, which usually meant that he wanted to be summoned again. She honestly didn't know and didn't want to think about it.

"What the hell have I done?"

She won, but at what price? She shouldn't have done that. It was stupid and risky, not to mention awkward. Jeez. She'll never be able to face him again. Desperation apparently made her do dumb shit. Oh, god, he'll be so pissed. She really doesn't want to experience that. Why, why, why…?

The pinkette gripped the key a bit tighter in her hand, the warmth of it steadily increasing. In the end she threw it away, not caring where it landed. Her thoughts were a mess. In the back of her mind she noted that it was already past midnight and that she had an early shift tomorrow in the hospital.

On auto pilot she cleaned her work space and got ready for bed.

What the hell is wrong with her? Why did she do that? Kissing him wasn't supposed to be a solution. Damn it, damn it! Although it was fairly innocent, she has kissed other guys with more fervour than that. Nononono- this isn't about that. It's the fact alone that she dared to do it, dared to lay her lips on a spirit, on someone who was supposedly the most evil person in Konoha history, someone who could obliterate her in one strike.

She got too comfortable around him. She should be more careful. Though in her defence most of the time he tended to annoy her, help her rather than scare her and it didn't help that he was fairly attractive as well. Damn Uchihas. Just when she thought that she was done with them another one comes prancing in her life and affecting her.

Jesus, what the hell is she thinking?

 _No! Don't think about it! That's bad. Don't think about Madara that way. Don't be that dumb little girl again. He's an asshat that likes torturing you, play around with you. It doesn't matter that he has helped you tremendously with your skills, occasionally even helping out on a mission or at home, kept you safe while you had to rid of a pesky poison that one dumb ninja poisoned you with, which was the whole reason for Tsunade to test me again because I almost died during that mission or when...okay, okay. You're going off course. Don't think about that._

Sakura groaned and fell in her bed, face first. Why did this always happen to her? Rolling over and covering herself with the sheets Sakura gently touched her still burning face and then her lips. It had been quick, but she still could feel it – the lukewarm feeling of his lips.

Shaking her head violently from her silly thoughts she rolled on her side, putting a hand under her pillow just so she couldn't touch her face again.

Sadly she realized that even though he was annoying at times, scary some other times and a general jackass he still had filled a void within her that she didn't know even existed. She was lonely. She never knew that. She regularly went out with her friends – Ino and other girls, had sparse missions with Team seven and occasionally some sparring matches with Tsunade, she put in a lot of hours at the hospital, where she was always around people, obviously. But even despite her communicating with people day to day basis she felt painstakingly lonely.

Whenever she went on a solo mission it had become like a requirement from him for her to summon him during that time or whenever she was alone at home or had a free day and even then when he wasn't around she still had the key, that brought him to this world, always on her.

She never paid attention to it, to his constant presence, to her unlikely attraction to him. She supposed she will have to learn to keep her feelings in check on top of other things. What they had was purely professional and she wasn't going to ruin that. She didn't want to resort to breaking his key. It was a dumb mistake on her part that won't be repeated, she will make sure of that.

Xxx

For the next few weeks she had been too busy to bring him back in her world, even though he wanted to come. He had been warming up the key to such temperatures that she had to throw it in ice water at one point just to avoid burning down her apartment building. And when she had gone on a three day mission with Team seven, the key did literally burn a hole through her backpack. Now that was a fiasco to explain. She had been keeping her meddling with kinjutsu a secret for nearly two months and she wasn't going to reveal that just yet. Especially when the person she had made a contract with was Madara Uchiha. Nope. Not happening.

Despite it being over two weeks already she still couldn't get her little action out of mind. It actually was one large reason why she was delaying bringing him back so much. She didn't know what to expect from him, how she should act around him. She felt like a dumb little girl – an impulsive, desperate girl that couldn't control her urges.

With a shaking hand she opened his door again after two weeks and a half had passed ever since she had last closed it. She had finally gotten a free day, all to herself and she no longer had any excuses not to summon him for any longer.

To her surprise Madara didn't mention anything about the kiss. All he did say was that just for the long time it took her to bring him back he wasn't going to go easy on her during their sparring session. Not that he ever did. He acted as if nothing had happened and it made Sakura at ease. Somewhat.

Still for the next week when she summoned him whenever she had free time, due to his request, she couldn't stop thinking about it or sending side way glances towards him. It made her feel like she was back in her academy days when she used to stare at Sasuke, so she tried to catch herself and avoid doing it. He seemed not to notice, thankfully. Also, a huge blessing from the Gods, he was less resilient when she wanted to send him back. If there was one positive from the damn incident then it was that she could finally keep the key and send him back with less resistance.

It had been a long day for her – she had worked two shifts in the hospital and helped out Tsunade with her mountain of paperwork. She was so tired that when she summoned Madara per his demand she didn't even have the energy to spar, not that he minded. He looked perfectly content just sitting at her kitchen counter and reading a book of who knows what. She honestly didn't care.

It once again was late in the evening when she was able to get some food. Naruto had offered to treat her to ramen, but she had refused, already being sick of ramen. In the end she had decided to torture herself just a bit longer and cook herself a bowl of gyudon.

Adding the last ingredient of soy sauce she stirred her concoction almost impatiently.

Her feet were killing her. _Gawd._ She thought that she would get used to running around the hospital for hours. Oh, how naive she had been. At least she wasn't in loss of chakra. Somehow Madara's persistence to stay in her world until the last minute had expanded her chakra reserves. It had been a pleasant discovery to make. Maybe he wasn't so bad at all. Maybe, and that's a huge _maybe._

Sighing Sakura leaned against the counter near the stove, letting her food simmer in the pan for a couple of minutes. Warily she cast her glance towards Madara. He was still reading, book in hand, an easy expression on his face. Unwillingly her eyes lingered longer than they should.

How badly she wanted to touch that hair. There was so much of it and it was so damn spiky...just...run her fingers through it or simply touch that skin or…

Sakura choked.

Madara had noticed her staring.

Blushing like crazy she swivelled around. Heart pounding in her chest, she removed the pan from the heat, turning the stove off.

 _Bad Sakura! Badbadbadbad!_

From the cupboard she grabbed a bowl and poured her food in it. The fuck was wrong with her? Slobbering over him like a starved dog. She should be past this. It made no sense for her to do this.

When she turned around to go grab a pair of chopsticks from the drawer her heart almost jumped out her throat. Madara had moved to stand in front of her, successfully caging her in. Damn ninjas and their skills and damn ghosts for being even more quieter. She almost got a heart attack.

"What do you want, Sakura?"

Confused Sakura finally met his gaze, her blush still prominent on her face. _Damn, damn all of this._ She gripped the counter, her hands shaking. This was a pickle. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. What the hell is she even supposed to answer?

He moved closer and Sakura nearly pressed herself flat against the counter in return. At least they weren't touching. God forbid they do.

Seeing her so flustered made him grin. "You changed the playing field, don't be surprised if your cards are being used against you." He finally moved away and Sakura got some breathing space, although he didn't move far enough. Instead of going back to his seat, he leaned against the counter near her, almost touching her side.

Sakura had to compose herself. Briefly she pondered what he meant by that. Does that mean that's she's in deeper shit than she thought?

"Do you know what peace is?" His softer, quieter tone brought her out of her thoughts. Turning her head to face him she noticed that he had closed his eyes in thought.

"Um...yea. It's when everybody can work in harmony, no fights, no wars." This was an odd line of questions and change of tone. What was he trying to weed out of her this time? It was bad enough that she had to suffer through reading that Infinite Tsukuyomi thing. Which she, by the way, didn't finish, but he doesn't need to know that.

"Exactly. But do you think we can ever achieve it in the world we're living in?"

Gazing at the cracks on the floor boards she thought about it for a moment, easing her grip on the counter. It was a pretty loaded question. "No." And it was the harsh truth. As much as she wanted for things to end well, not always it went that way. She had seen enough shinobi die from injuries gained during missions, shinobi dying during missions, regular people suffer from the consequences of civil war, and the list went on. People were always in conflict. She had learned that early on. "So?"

"So, we should fix it. Aren't you tired from all the deaths, fighting, the corruption of this world?"

Sakura curiously gazed up at him, but he hadn't moved an inch. Where was he going with this? "Truthfully, yes, but it's my job to face all of that. I have to deal with it everyday, just like any other shinobi."

"You shouldn't have to."

"Eh?"

He finally opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. "Did you read your instructions?"

Biting her tongue a bit, she averted her gaze. She had hoped he wouldn't ask this. What a stupid hope had that been. "Ermm...yes."

He obviously knew that she was lying if the displeased frown was any indication. "Read it. It's going to be your guide for the mission I have prepared for you."

"Eh? Whaddya mean?" Outraged she stood straighter. From where did this come from? This wasn't their agreement.

Madara grimaced. "I need your help. In this condition I can't do it alone."

Sakura spluttered, confused as heck. How much more cryptic can he get? She almost wanted to ask, but held back lest she made herself look stupid in front of him. How did this tie in with the first questions? What the hell was he planning? Suddenly she suspected his reasons for being here. He never did specify to her what they were.

He suddenly moved from his spot, walking back to where he left his book. "Eat your dinner before it gets cold."

Snapping out of her musings, she ran up to the drawer and pulled out her chopsticks. Grabbing her, thankfully still warm, bowl of gyudon she made her merry way towards the counter where Madara was sitting, but stopped midway. She probably should go somewhere else to eat, she already felt awkward enough around him. No need to make it more awkward by making a pig out of herself in front of him. Not that she hasn't done that before, but this time she was a bit more self conscious. With him being a ghost he didn't need to eat or sleep, so she probably didn't need to remind him how good food could be. This time she didn't want to annoy him.

In the end she had her very late dinner in her living room while watching TV.

Xxx

After a month she had finally understood what he had meant by mission and Infinite Tsukuyomi. Well, partially at least. He still wouldn't explain to her what the end results would be apart from peace. She suspected that it was because it would be something she wouldn't like.

Now she finally understood what the folklore had meant when it had said that Madara Uchiha was a lunatic. This whole Eye of the Moon Plan was lunacy. Of course she didn't say that to his face, she didn't want to be on the butt end of the sharingan or worse – his kama. Somehow it also involved Naruto and the Kyuubi that was sealed in him. It was an another thing she didn't mention to him – about knowing the whereabouts of the Kyuubi or Ichibi, for that matter, among other things she might know relating to the plan.

Sakura wasn't dumb, she knew that Madara from the beginning had something up his sleeve. She just didn't know how bad it was. She helped where she could with it. So far it had been very little, to Madara's chagrin. Briefly she had suspected that Madara knew that she was holding him back on purpose, but he never mentioned anything. Then again she had learned that that wasn't something she could count on. He had a penchant for striking when she least expected, so it was probable that in the future she would have to answer.

On a positive note, she was finally easing out of her dumb crush. Even though he still was a jerk and sometimes tried to take the key from her, she had learned her lesson and had made it into a necklace. Nobody ever said how big the unlocking motion had to be. So unless he wanted to choke her, which wouldn't slide very well with her and in turn would end badly for him, he had no way of taking it from her. She successfully had gotten rid of those little find the key games, meaning no more desperate moves to get it back. And, fortunately for her, Madara didn't care enough to bring her desperate move up again.

Slowly, but surely, everything started to go her way. She might have just tamed the wild dog. She was in control and it made her happy. Who would have thought that lil' ol' her could control such a powerful man?

Though he still was better than her in battle if her current predicament was any indication. She was pinned, Madara had her cornered.

Panting she wiped her forehead from sweat and assessed her situation. For a change Madara had brought out his weapons, though had limited himself to only using his kama. This had left Sakura in a pinch. She didn't use any weapons other than kunai, shuriken or the occasional senbon, so she had been pushed to improvise, think quickly to counter his attacks.

The clearing they were sparring in was a mess from her earth shattering punches, broken trees, large fissures scattered around and debris of wood and rock scattered all around. Embarrassingly enough all of it had been her doing, her signs of trying to defend herself. Such a fighting method wasn't advised in populated areas, but this time she had been pushed to use the environment to her advantage. She had sparred with him long enough to know his basic fighting style, so it hadn't been too much of a problem for her to keep up until he actively started using his kama in his attacks.

In the end it had left her solely focusing on defence. She would have used some of her dirtier tricks against him, but the problem was that she couldn't get close enough, touch him to do her damage, though he did. But what was weird that he didn't injure her at all, always touching her in some way instead of laying harm. It had made her shudder every time it had happened.

That's how she had ended up at the sharp end of his kama, in a standstill.

Madara lowered his kama and stepped away from her. "We're done for today."

Bewildered Sakura spluttered. "What? But I can still go on."

He raised his kama again, sharp end up and put the stick end of it on the ground, slightly leaning against it. "It's fruitless to fight someone who is always on the defensive. You should assess your tactics and modify or change them for better use against someone with a weapon."

She scowled, easing herself out of her battle stance and letting the tension out of her body. She didn't know if she should feel insulted or not. He ended their spar earlier than usual. Like, did he think she couldn't handle him? She probably couldn't if he went all out, but he could have at least tried. Ugh! He never bothered to explain her mistakes thoroughly either, letting her come to the necessary conclusions herself. Sakura clicked her tongue, realizing that he probably was right. And once again the power difference between them made her feel like shit. Though she had to keep in mind that he was a lot more experienced, had better reflexes, knowledge. She still had a lot to learn.

Crossing her arms she pouted. She couldn't help it, she still felt cheated.

"I suppose for better results you could try to summon another spirit."

Alarmed Sakura dropped her childish act. "What? Are you crazy? I nearly died trying to create a contract with you. How is another spirit even going to help me?"

He frowned. "Relax. You're underestimating your abilities. By now your chakra reserves are large enough to handle it, that combined with your good chakra control and you should be fine."

"Okay, fine then, but why do I need one?" Pouting again she tried to ignore the fuzzy feeling that came from hearing him saying something like that.

"Practice. Say you summon someone like, for example, Hashirama and you might get more benefits from that. It's always an option." By now he was smiling, watching her reactions carefully.

Sakura opened her mouth to respond, but closed it soon after. Suspicious she narrowed her eyes. She knew that Madara and Hashirama were friends back when they were alive, but what would he get from Hashirama being here? He never passed up as the sentimental type to her. In fact, he never mentioned anything about his past, friends or family to her. This seemed fishy.

Not to mention that there was the possibility that someone else might have already tried to summon the Shodai, thus her chance to summon him would be gone. If the key was already created she would have to know what the key looked like to summon him again. And that is only if his contract with his previous summoner was broken. It was such a headache inducing jutsu that Sakura would have preferred to never use it again.

Madara seemed to know where her thought process was going, so he answered before she could ask. "He doesn't have a contract with anyone. No one during the time he's been dead has tried to summon him."

Even more suspicious she propped her arms in her sides. "And how do you know that?"

"He told me himself."

"Really?" Now Sakura was curious.

"Yes. Whenever we come across each other we exchange a few words."

Well, that was interesting information to find out. Would have been great if she knew it sooner, but as always he liked to keep her in the dark. Actually, he didn't tell her about a lot of things. And, dammit, she wanted to know. Like why, for example, he needed Hashirama here? She doubted Hashirama, like her, would agree with his plans. So, why the hell did he need two opposing forces? What was he planning now?

Ugh! Sakura was so tired from all this secrecy, manipulation and half truths. Even when she straight out asked him, he still found a way to weed himself out of giving an honest answer. She just knew. She was just so damn tired from all these games.

This was the last straw.

Gritting her teeth she stomped closer to him, barely managing to keep her anger in check. When she was close enough she moulded her face in her meanest glare. Madara hardly reacted at all. She raised an accusing finger towards him. "You know what? I'm tired from this. I'm tired from you always lying to me."

He raised an eyebrow curiously. "I don't lie to you."

Sakura snarled. "Oh, yea? Obscuring the truth is pretty much lying. Don't think that I'm some kind of little stupid girl you can move around as a puppet. I know you've been hiding information from me. I know you're not telling me something about Eye of the Moon Plan. And, on top of that, what the hell was up with all the touching today? I want the truth, Madara!"

Madara chuckled, moving his kama to his other hand he closed the distance between them. Sakura almost wanted to take a step back, but bit down that impulse and instead stood ramrod straight. He leaned closer to the side of her face and this time Sakura couldn't help but shudder.

"I touched you because I like to see you squirm."

"Bastard." She half heartedly punched him on his armour covered chest.

He stepped away from her, flicking her ear in the process.

Sakura scowled and tried to rid of the flutters in her stomach. Figures that that's the question he decides to answer first. "Now, what are you hiding about the Eye of the Moon Plan?" She was just barely keeping a hold of herself. She wanted to hit him so badly.

"How about I'll answer some of your questions honestly and then you answer mine? Don't act like a saint, Sakura. I know you've been hiding things from me as well."

Oh, yes, she wanted to punch that smug face really much. She knew that this would come someday, but she hadn't expected for it to be brought up now. Part of her wanted to back out, just scratch this off as a joke or something else, but the other part couldn't stand down from the challenge. She didn't want to tell him what she knew about the Kyuubi and the Akatsuki that were collecting the tailed beasts (Prior to her summoning him Konoha had already fought off a couple of Akatsuki members, even helped out Suna with the same problem, and helped save Gaara). Though, she very much wanted to know what he had been hiding from her. She didn't think that he was a horrible person per say, but some of his actions so far had been questionable. He was brewing up something that might just affect the world negatively, despite him saying that all he wanted was peace. And if she could she would stop it.

"Alright, but you'll start by answering my previous question." How she hoped that she won't regret this decision.

The smugness left his expression and was replaced by something Sakura couldn't exactly place. "It's a dream genjutsu. Upon reflecting the Rinne Sharingan from the moon the whole world will be enveloped in a dream world. Those under the influence of the Tsukuyomi will get their deepest desires fulfilled."

Aghast, Sakura took a step back. That was pure insanity. A dream world? How the hell would that create world peace? She couldn't make heads or tails from this revelation. That wouldn't solve anything. How can he believe that it would?

That easy smile was back on his face again after seeing her expression. "Your turn."

She composed herself, steeling her stance again. She bit her lip, thinking if she really should do this. She would be a hypocrite if she didn't though. "I know where the tailed beasts are, well two of them at least. There's also this organization Akatsuki, who collect these beasts. Currently we know that they are in the possession of the Ichibi and who knows how many other tailed beasts." She purposely left out Naruto and the Kyuubi. She had no intention to bring harm to her friend or tie him in in her mess.

Recognition passed through his eyes, which only made Sakura more suspicious. Other than that he didn't react outwardly to this new line of information.

Sakura was about to ask her next question, but he cut her off. "Since I had to answer two of your questions in a row, I think it's only fair that you do the same."

She growled, once again itching to sock him in his smug face. "Alright." Hopefully he won't realize that she only told him a part of what she knew and won't berate her further with the same question.

Madara pretended to think about his next question by leaning more heavily on his kama, annoying her on purpose. At that moment if it weren't for the bright red armour he would have looked like the Grim Reaper, Sakura belatedly realized. It was a stark reminder of who she was talking to. "What do you want, Sakura?"

A sense of déjà vu hit her. He asked her the same question some time ago. If she remembered correctly then she had avoided to answer it, but under the context he had last asked her it, she was kind of glad that she hadn't answered it. It was already embarrassing enough. Though now that she thought about it she had no idea what she wanted.

"I know that you have some kind of crush on me."

Blanching Sakura took a step back. Fuck. This was what she was fearing. Was that what he was asking from her? What she wanted from him, in that way? Crap, carp! She honestly doesn't know. Avoiding his gaze she stared a hole in the ground. It had been naive of her to think that he wouldn't notice. With her trying to figure out what he was planning she never considered her reasons thoroughly for keeping him around, despite knowing that what he was planning was potentially dangerous.

The question served her as a reminder that she was in control of his way to the real world, that she could break it off whenever she could and stop his scheming. But it hadn't even passed her mind. Why? Now of that she wasn't sure. For months Madara had become such a constant in her life that she didn't even question his presence anymore, that she could stop whatever was going on with a simple motion. Was the reason what he was implying? Because she liked him she kept him around?

She raised her head and felt a blush spread across her cheeks against her will. He was patiently waiting for her answer, a small self satisfied smirk on his face.

Was he really going to make her say it? What the hell would he gain from that? Some kind of satisfaction from making her _squirm_? Her nerves felt frayed, hands clammy and itchy from her gloves. She had a hard time admitting it to herself, let alone say it out loud. In fact she had been trying to forget it, separate her emotions. Her downfall were always her emotions, her sentimentality. She had thought that after everything she had been through, after getting over her childish crush on Sasuke that she had gotten a rein on them. Apparently not.

"Well?"

Balling her hands she grit her teeth. He was going to make her say it. Fuck this, fuck him! She could feel the anger coursing through her and the underlying embarrassment that kept her pinned in her spot, otherwise she would have hit him a long time ago. "Fine! You're right." The words slipped through. She barely registered saying them, her fury clouding her judgement. "I don't know what I want, but I know that I'm weak, that I developed feelings that I shouldn't have, that I don't know how to deal with it. And I can't stop thinking about it ever since..." she abruptly cut herself off, turning away from him and covering her flaming face with her hands.

Fuckfuckfuck! She might as well break the key now. Her life was a whole lot easier without all of this crap. She doesn't need this.

She didn't hear him walk over to her. Only when he stepped in front of her did she notice. Everything after that was so sudden that Sakura didn't know how to react. He had taken her by the scruff of her neck angling her head and kissing her in a forceful, almost bruising kiss. She was too slack jawed at what what was happening to do much of anything.

When he pulled away she could see the mirth shining in his dark eyes. "Is this what you want, Sakura?"

She moved her mouth, but no words would form. She was shocked, she barely registered what had happened. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her chest that she didn't even hear what he had said.

Madara took her hand and for a moment a snippet of fear entered her, but when all he did was place it in his hair at the side of his neck she relaxed. The move utterly confused her, but he didn't give her enough time to ponder on the weird action before he brought her in for an another kiss, only this time it was a lot more gentle and, dare she say it, intimate. He surely didn't waste the opportunity of her slack jawed state, deepening the connection.

Dazzled she closed her eyes responding to his actions. She gripped his hair when he used his teeth to nibble on her bottom lip for a while. Her other hand entered his hair no soon after. Later on Sakura had realized the reason for his odd placement of her hand; once again Madara had noticed something she had hoped she had been able to hide – that she really wanted to touch his mane of hair. It was such a shame that she was wearing gloves and couldn't touch it properly. She was overcome with such a flurry of emotions, feelings. The slightly colder temperature of his body made her shiver.

He broke their lip lock again letting her catch her breath. She wanted to say something, but her words got lost in her throat and were replaced with a squeak when he picked her up bridal style. By now the blush on her face was a constant. For the short period he carried her she hid her red face in his hair, noting that it smelled just like the wind.

When she felt that she was being set down she peeked from her spot and felt another wave of flutters pass through her when she realized that he had placed her in his lap. Madara had sat down at the base of a tree cross legged and placed Sakura side ways on top of his crossed legs, leaving Sakura now eye level to his forehead. Needless to say she was confused with this development, too flabbergasted to protest.

This time she had to lean slightly down when he pulled her closer for a third kiss in a row. It was by now when she was coming back to her senses and processing all that was happening.

Using her free hand, that wasn't thrown across his shoulders she stuck it in his hair. There was something she had been curious about as a medic for a while. She knew very little about the physiology of the spirit body, apart from the lower body temperature and the fact that he might not even need to breathe, but did out of habit. While he was busy dominating her mouth she trailed her hand down from his hair to his pulse point and was pleasantly surprised. He had a heart beat. It wasn't as erratic as hers currently was, but it still was there. _Well, I'll be damned._

When he started trailing small kisses down her jaw she fully came back to her senses, processing the position she was in. And what a startling realization it was.

What the hell were they doing? This was so wrong on so many levels. She's kissing a ghost for fucks sake. Why is she going along with this? She was supposed to not let something like this happen.

Her head was pounding so loudly from her heartbeat that she didn't hear him talking at all. Wrong. _Wrong._ This was so wrong, yet why did it feel nice?

He was leaning towards her again. She stopped him by placing her gloved hand across his mouth. "What are we doing? This is wrong. You're dead! You're a ghost. Wait, nevermind that, how old are you even? Oh God, this is so wrong." All her concerns came pouring out as a barrage of questions. There should be a rule about this. This shouldn't be happening.

She heard Madara mutter something along the lines of "it doesn't matter" before he removed her hand. "You still haven't told me everything you know." Those words coupled with his sly smile made something snap inside her.

It dawned on her that he was using her again, trying to loosen her lips by giving her what she supposedly wants. Her eye twitched.

When he was trying to kiss her again she stopped him again, this time by dragging him back with the hand she had trailed from his shoulder to the back of his head. To her surprise he only rolled his eyes at being interrupted for the second time in a row. It was an action that she hadn't seen the Uchiha do before, meaning he might not be as unaffected as she first thought. Though her point still stood.

She snarled. "You're playing me." His hands that he had placed on her waist and thigh increased their grip. Oh, she was right. Sakura tilted closer. Because of their position he had to angle his head upwards and in turn the right side of his face wasn't obscured by his bangs. She had the chance to stare him down dead on. "Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

He was amused with her anger. "No, but that's what makes this fun." The hand on her thigh left and instead was placed at the back of her head, messing up the tie that kept her hitai-ate in place. He pushed her forward for their fourth kiss. This time it was a lot wilder, with Sakura pushing forth all her hate, a gnash of teeth and tongue. She even bit him ferociously when he angled her head, which earned her a growl from him.

She hated him for thinking that he could play with her emotions, that he thought that he could use her weakness against her, that she would bend to his will. Though chance. She wasn't the same girl she used to be, she wasn't that weak and pathetic girl that used to freeze up as soon as danger faced her way. That girl was gone. She had changed, she had bettered herself, though she had never expected that someday she would be butting heads with the most fearsome Uchiha of all, acting like a couple of wild dogs.

She bit him again before tearing away. Sakura couldn't help but grin when she noticed that she had made him bleed from her bite. She felt flushed and was panting from exertion. His much more even breath was fanning her face, dark, hooded eyes watching her every move. She held her breath when he licked off the blood from his bottom lip, smirking at the end.

Jeez, she knew that they had some slight sexual tension before, but she didn't think it was this bad. Why the hell did she just find that attractive? _Bad, Sakura!_

Shaking her head slightly she let go of him. They should stop before this leads to something that she'll regret. Thankfully Madara understood what she wanted and let her go as well, letting her climb out of his lap and take a seat against the tree besides him. Of course she kept a respectable distance between them now. She hugged her knees, letting the past few minutes sink in. Tingles were running all across her body and she felt hot all over her body.

She'll probably agonize over this later when she comes down from her high, she knew. This was something that wasn't supposed to happen, it shouldn't have went so far. She should have just dropped her dumb crush and he should have kept quiet about it. In the end Sakura had to backtrack her previous statement about being in control. This, whatever it was, just proved that she was far from controlling the situation, that no matter how hard she tried she could never win.

The pinkette cast a glance towards him, noticing that he had changed his position as well – had raised one knee up and was resting his arm on it, a far away expression on his face. By the looks of it he was contemplating something. Sakura blushed and turned her head away when he sucked on his still bleeding lip. She sure left a number on him.

She couldn't stop the feeling of awkwardness that over took her. Should she say something to him? What the hell would she even say? Despite feeling awkward she didn't really want to say anything, she was still mad at him for trying to manipulate her and mad at herself for letting her emotions control her.

In the end both of them had played each other, as odd as that sounded. She had kept her secrets, avoiding answering everything truthfully and to an extent he had done the same. She still had a flurry of questions she wanted answered. With the information she had some things made little sense. She had learned early on that what she had read in the history books about him wasn't entirely true. He was an asshat, but he wasn't the despicable evil the books had described him as. Then again she might be biased. Still it didn't explain why he so desperately wanted to achieve something unattainable, something that would never come true with the methods he was using.

Part of her was curious and wanted to ask what had pushed him to such an extreme, what had wounded him so deeply that the only solution would essentially be taking away everyone's free will. After all people didn't decide to put people into an eternal sleep on a whim. She kind of understood that he meant well, but was willingly putting himself in a position where he would be despised by everyone (she guessed that might explain the books). She had always been a bleeding heart, so she couldn't stop but worry about these things. It was in her nature to help people, she was a medic after all.

In the end it was a fight between what her heart wanted and what her mind wanted, again. She couldn't decide what her next move should be – help Madara or break the key and stop this madness. Partially she understood that she was selfish, that she would never break the key now that he had filled that void in her life, despite knowing that it would be the best for everyone if he never returned to this world.

Sakura sighed, inhaling deeply the late summer air. It was a lot windy than it usually was, so the heat that usually enveloped Konoha during the summer was a tad bit more bearable. She let her eyes roam across the clearing, nothing how the leaves shook in the wind and the birds chirped. She and Madara were sitting in the shade of a tree, but the clearing she had disrupted with her actions was illuminated by the bright afternoon sun. If someone by chance came across this clearing, they would surely report to the Hokage and Kakashi would know instantly that it could only be her, who could destroy a forest like this, which in turn would mean that she would get into trouble.

"Send me back." Madara's gravelly voice brought her back to the present.

Bewildered she turned to face him. "W-what?"

He hadn't moved from his spot, the same expression on his face. "Close the door. I want to go back for now."

She was at a loss of words. He never asked her to send him back. Usually she decided when he should go back because if it was up to him he never would. What had happened? He had been so determined to stay in the real world for so long, never wanting to go back to the dreary other side. What changed? Was it because of what she said?

Then again she shouldn't question this. This was once in a life time opportunity and she should take it, clear her mind without him around.

She pulled out the key by the chain she kept it on from under her qipao dress. Taking the key she swung it in a half triangle motion towards him, effectively closing the door. She watched as he gradually faded out of existence. It always looked so weird to her, to see someone just moments ago she could touch disappear like that.

She slid the slightly larger than normal key back under her dress, where it rested between her breasts. As she was about to let go of the chain she realized that after what just happened the position of the key seemed highly inappropriate, whereas before it had been solely practical. In hasty movements she pulled it back out and over her head, deciding to stuff it in her weapons pouch instead.

Resting her chin back on her knees she contemplated her next move. She wasn't even sure what was the right thing to do anymore. There were so many 'what ifs' and things she could have done to avoid all of this. No harm had been done so far, she had stalled him enough from making any drastic moves towards his plan, but for how long could she keep that up?

* * *

 _Have to admit that I had a lot of fun when writing this, the characters came so easily to me. Bettering Sakura was a part of this (cause honestly, everyone knows that canon Sakura is a horrible character, due to authors incompetence), while still keeping some of her most notable qualities (otherwise it wouldn't be Sakura anymore). I don't plan for this being overly long, three chapters of same length, max, but who knows what might happen. I usually plan my stories out, with a clear end in mind, but this time I was so excited that I didn't plan anything, which is bad, a bad writing regime in general, so I hope that this pans out and I finish this in two chapters.  
_

 _Feedback is always welcome._

 _Thanks for reading._


	2. Take Me Down

For the next week Sakura lost herself in her long hour hospital shifts, working almost non-stop. One day Tsunade even had asked what had crawled up her ass for her to work herself to the bone. Honestly she wasn't sure, she was just trying not to think about Madara and the situation with him, and work helped to keep her focus off that.

She didn't even think about summoning him back, not knowing what she would say when she did, and the odd thing was that the key had been cold during all that time. Sakura had no idea what had happened, but part of her was glad that she wasn't being pressured by him anymore. She wouldn't be able to look at him with a straight face.

On a side note, she had a jõnin solo mission coming up. Jõnin like her, who were also social workers had less missions, but it didn't mean that she was completely off the mission roster. It sometimes was a pain in the ass and she would have rather avoided going on a solo mission. She still could bring along a teammate to help, but she didn't have anyone to chose from. Naruto had a tight schedule and now that he had started Hokage training hardly had any spare time. Sasuke was off on his own mission. Ino was doing her own work hours in the Torture and Interrogation Force. And she honestly didn't feel comfortable enough to ask anyone else. Everyone had their own work to do.

This was the moment when Madara came in handy. It wasn't like she couldn't do a mission alone, but she was a people person and to keep her sanity she wanted someone to talk to, even if that someone was Uchiha Madara.

She had been reluctant and apprehensive to do it, but on the day of her mission she had tried to summon him. To her surprise nothing had happened, no pull on her chakra, nothing. He hadn't come. At first she had thought that she had done something wrong. She had checked the key for any cracks, but that seemed kind of impossible, since the key was a materialized piece of chakra and in order to break it you had to use chakra. As much as she's thrown it or had a scuffle over it, chakra hadn't been involved. She didn't know what to think or what to do for that matter.

In the end she had left it alone and completed her solo mission alone, like planned. After that she had gotten back into her neck-breaking work regime. Tsunade had found out pretty early on that she had been taking extra hours in the hospital and had issued her a free weekend that she couldn't refuse.

Once again, Sakura was alone and contemplating what to do. She was still iffy about her last encounter with Madara, but somewhere along the way she made up her mind that she'll steer back their relationship into a professional one and continue the way they did before. She'll control her dumb feelings.

Having him around did have it's drawbacks, like his scheming or trying to hide his presence from her friends (God she didn't want to imagine what would happen if anyone were to find out), him having his own chakra signature didn't help her at all with the latter problem, though thankfully he had no problems hiding his signature.

But the benefits were too good to pass up. She was getting better at basic combat and her reflexes were better than ever. She didn't exactly mind his company either, when he wasn't being an obnoxious jerk. During their time together he had asked her all kinds of questions relating to the current state in the village. She had nothing to hide, so she shared readily. She couldn't deny that she hadn't been captivated when he had shared his own ideas he had had for the village or when, frankly speaking, he had practically dissected the current shinobi system. At some points she had even agreed, surprisingly enough.

He was an influential and knowledgeable person. Sakura sort of liked the influence he had left on her, the things she had learned. It was a nice change from Ino or Naruto, who got her into trouble more often than not.

Mind made up she tried to summon him again, but nothing would happen, again. She started to worry. Did she mess something up or he simply didn't want to come? She wasn't sure if not coming was even possible.

For a week she tried to open his door again, but it was the same result as the last time. Nothing. Despite herself she was anxious. She was clueless and it was setting her on edge. Once again she had to find ways to keep her mind off it. Tsunade didn't allow her to overwork herself anymore, so she instead indulged in Ino and her ideas of entertainment. She probably was being stupid by worrying over it that much, but she couldn't help it. Even Ino had noticed her change in behaviour and had barraged her with questions, that Sakura, to her credit, avoided like a pro.

That's how she found herself two days later setting herself up for the dreaded kinjutsu. She had cracked, the stress from the unknown got to her and the only solution for it she could imagine was to follow Madara's suggestion – create a contract with Hashirama. So far she didn't think that Madara had been lying to her, so she didn't doubt his words when he said that he and Hashirama talked in afterlife. Maybe the Shodai could raise some light on the situation; should she just break all contact with the Uchiha or try harder?

It was risky and dangerous. Hashirama was a powerful shinobi and the amount of chakra it would take to get him to her world, not to mention keep him here was vast. If she were to fail she might just ruin Hashirama's chances of ever being summoned again or hurt herself if she didn't have enough chakra to bring him here. She was probably better off not doing this at all, but there was this little trickle of apprehension that wouldn't leave her alone.

Sakura took a deep breath and cracked her neck. Her hands were shaking. The first time she had been lucky, but now that she knew the true dangers of the kinjutsu she was nervous. The dim light caused by her drawn curtains and stuffiness of her bedroom didn't help either. She should probably open a window. _No! Focus, Sakura._ Shaking her clammy hands she took another breath and went through the hand seals.

" _Kuchiyose!_ " She held the last seal and waited. This time she had made sure to keep in mind who she wanted to summon and hoped to anything that's holy that this wouldn't blow up in her face.

Nothing happened for a while and Sakura started to fear that she might have done something wrong. She was about to release the seal, when she doubled over from the sudden pull on her chakra. Something was materializing in front of her and if the strain on her chakra was any indication then it was working.

Wincing she leaned against the edge of her bed, while still holding the rat seal. If she broke the last seal she might just dispel the jutsu. She had to close her eyes from the light that was appearing in front of her.

"You must be Sakura-san."

The voice surprised her making her release her seal and flail around. She was so exhausted already that she had lost her sharp senses. Rubbing her eyes and sitting up right she balked when she set her sights on a face that was familiar, yet not at all. She had seen it on the Hokage mountain thousands of times, but now seeing it in flesh (Did spirits even have flesh?) was a whole different experience altogether. She also dully noted that he wore the same red armour that Madara did, except his lacked the metal plates in front and he also, unlike Madara, had a Konoha hitai-ate. Though, the most startling difference between the two childhood friends was the smile. Sakura hadn't know what to expect, but the warm yet pleasantly surprised grin wasn't it. It was such a crass contrast from the frown Madara had sported the first time he had appeared before her.

"Or am I wrong?" Hashirama's deep and soft voice brought her back to reality.

Spluttering she tried to get back on her feet and get through an apology for being a klutz. She was surprised when he extended a hand to her. Dumbly she accepted it and let him haul her back on her feet, a shudder going through her body from his lukewarm touch. It only served her as a reminder that she just successfully completed the jutsu and brought the God of shinobi to the living world. Her feet suddenly wobbled from her exhaustion, but he held her up by her elbow.

Sakura apologised and thanked him for his help, blushing in embarrassment 'cause she just made a fool of herself in front of the Shodai Hokage. "I am Sakura, Haruno Sakura. How did you know?"

Seeing that she finally managed to steady herself Hashirama made a respectable distance between them again. "Pleasure to meet you Haruno-san. I suppose that you are fairly acquainted with me already." Sakura nodded, still trying to rein in her star struck expression. "Madara mentioned you a few times. Although I never expected for you to summon me as well. I've heard that this jutsu is incredibly taxing on ones body." His face switched from his gentle smile to a worried one when he gave her a once over. "I hope I'm not causing you too much trouble."

The pinkette shook her head. "Not at all and you can call me Sakura." While he wasn't causing her any troubles, yet, it was tiring to keep him in the real world. She could feel the perspiration settle on her skin and her eyes get droopy. Though, what did surprise her was that Madara had been talking about her. She didn't think he found her important enough to mention to anyone. Apparently she was wrong.

He grinned again lighting the room up. "Great! And you can call me Hashirama. Now I suppose we should create that contract if you want?"

Sakura sat back down on her bed and nodded. This was going over so smoothly. It was nothing like it had been with Madara. Hashirama was so warm and welcoming, it felt elating by just being around him, similarly to Naruto, unlike Madara who had been cold and aloof, even forceful at times. Sometimes it felt like she needed pliers to get anything out of the Uchiha or pose an interesting enough challenge if their last encounter was any indication (Sakura shuddered, remembering that make-out session, that had kept her awake that night). But with Hashirama it was so effortless, she felt like she could ask him anything and he would readily share.

"Umm...alright...uh, where should we start?" She was so offset by the whole experience that she had forgotten her first most reason for summoning him. At that moment she very much felt like that bumbling school girl she was during her academy days.

Hashirama crossed his hands in thought. "For my part, all I want to do is to see my granddaughter. Haven't seen the bugger in ages. I wonder how many kids did she have...or what is she even doing? God knows the girl could be crazy at times."

Sakura listened in wonder to his mumbling. Should she tell him that Tsunade is a spinster? Though, she supposed that she could arrange a meeting with Tsunade for him and he could find out on his own. She would have to reveal her meddling in kinjutsu to her mentor, but she knew Tsunade well enough to know that if she asked her mentor won't spread it around the village, though she didn't doubt that she would get yelled at for using it.

Righting herself and rubbing the sleepiness from her eyes Sakura cleared her throat. "Okay, well..."

That snapped the legendary shinobi away from his mumbling. "Oh, sorry, Sakura-san." He laughed sheepishly. "Please, continue with your part."

She bit her lip in thought, trying to remember what she had wanted from him in the first place. He was so polite, so nothing like Tsunade that she had to wonder how were they even related. What shocked her the most was how different this had been so far from the first time. It only led her to thinking how could Hashirama even be friends with Madara. Didn't he kill Madara? She was so confused, once again.

With a snap she remembered at that moment why she had went through the torture to summon Hashirama. If Madara couldn't give her any answers maybe Hashirama could. More importantly she wanted to know where the dreaded Uchiha had gone to.

She ground her teeth, the frustration coming back to her. "All I want to know is where the prick Uchiha Madara went. The fuckstick left me hanging, manipulated me and made fun of me. I want to know what happened to him, so I can summon him back to smash his face in. The damn key isn't working and I want to know why." She gripped her sheets, seething and completely missing the surprised look Hashirama was sending her way. "Oh, also I want for you to answer some of my questions," she added as an afterthought. There's no way she's going to let the chance to ask the village's founder, Shodai Hokage, some questions pass up.

The same light as before only weaker shone before her in a split second and the next moment a key was dropped in her hand. Sakura sighed, now when the contract was complete and the amount of chakra she needed to supply to Hashirama receded. She briefly noted that his key was coloured in warm tones of red and brown and had less edges than Madara's key had.

"Kunoichi these days are really different...hmm...though I can't blame you for feeling like that."

The medic chuckled drily at his words. At least he understood, though she did suppose that he'll have the same culture shock Madara had at the beginning. She knew well enough that back in his time kunoichi were supposed to act a different way than she currently is. She probably has to thank Tsunade for that, her shishou beat the shy, self-conscious girl out of her. Though, hopefully, Hashirama will be easier to work with and explain things to.

Their goals set Sakura sent him back for now with the promise that she'll set up a meeting with Tsunade for him and he'll try to look for Madara in the afterlife. In the end she couldn't believe that she had actually summoned the God of Shinobi and set up a deal with him. The usefulness of her deal was questionable, but the contract with Hashirama was well worth it.

Xxx

It was only two days later when she could privately meet Tsunade. To say that she was freaked out was an understatement. She was about to reveal her shady deals that might get her in a shit-ton of trouble. She knew her shishou and how unforgiving she could be when it came to punishment. Hopefully her reconciling with her grandfather will move her enough for her to go easy on her, though Sakura wasn't holding her breath on that.

The blonde had grown impatient with her hesitance and had almost thrown her out of her office before she had finally brought up enough courage to summon the Shodai.

Needless to say her shishou had been floored and had stared at her grandfather slack-jawed. She had briefly explained the situation before she had left the room, letting the two reconcile. Before hand she had warned Hashirama not to spill the beans to his granddaughter that he wasn't the first contract she had made, for her own safety. Thankfully, he hadn't questioned her choice of keeping Tsunade in the dark about that and agreed.

She had levitated near the room for a while, but as soon as she heard talking, shouting from Tsunade and pleading crying Sakura had taken that as her cue to find a different place to wait. That was something she didn't want to hear. Hearing the Shodai cry alone weirded her out enough for her to pull out an old medical scroll she kept on her and try to immerse herself in that.

That day she had learned a lot about one of her village's founders, among other things. Well, at least she had told someone about her secret, she did get punishment as predicted – graveyard shifts in the hospital for two weeks on top of her normal ones, - but it had felt somewhat better to get it out. She kind of felt bad for meddling with the dead. Though at least Tsunade had promised not to spill the beans to anyone else, knowing well enough what trouble such information could stir up, she at least had that going for her 'cause her shishou hadn't agreed with her reasons for using such a dirty jutsu. Tsunade had let her go with the promise that she wouldn't use the jutsu ever again.

Now with her part of the deal - Hashirama couldn't bring her any information, telling her that it was hard to navigate through Limbo and finding someone was near impossible. It didn't help that Madara's key had still been cold. Now with having two keys she sort of could gauge that it was an odd thing for a key to be like that. Hashirama's key, in comparison, was always warm.

Nothing much had changed in the end, apart from her now having longer hospital shifts and Hashirama now being her sparring buddy instead of Madara. Actually, scratch that, a lot had changed. She used to just live her life, letting things go their way, trying to improve herself, helping people and the village. Now she felt like her unspoken goal was to stop the ancient Uchiha to achieve his plans. She wasn't stupid, she knew that there was more to his plan than he had told her so far, he had something up his sleeve, something she wasn't aware of yet. Apart from trying to get him back for her own selfish reasons, she felt that keeping him tied to her somehow would help hinder him.

There were moments when she started wondering what were the Akatsuki's goals and why did they want the tailed beasts just like Madara did. It was an oddly specific goal and Sakura speculated that they might be working together, which in turn only made her worry more. It was an insane thought, but during her long, lonely nights her mind tended to wander. For all she knew, it could be just a funny coincidence.

Among other things, she also used to wonder what made the ancient Uchiha the way he is and if she found out could she possibly help, but as time went on she realized that Madara was someone who wouldn't give up that easily. What he was planning to do was big, scary and insane and she could see from the look in his eye that he was hell-bent determined to achieve it.

In general she hated thinking about things like that, she was a positive person and believed in the best of people, but she couldn't ignore reality either. And Madara, frankly, while a decent person with great ideas, was someone detached from reality, hurt so deeply by something that he was willing to reach extremes.

Sakura sighed and rested her chin in her palm. She had been lounging in the on-call room for about an hour, taking her well deserved break from work. She had planned to take a nap, but her thoughts had refused to leave her alone. She couldn't push aside what Tsunade had said to her, and how she was going to handle Madara and put a stop to his plans. It was nerve wrecking. She wanted to ask for help so badly, though she suspected that she might only hinder herself by doing so. The damn Uchiha was far too perceptive.

She was sitting on the edge of the bed, one arm propped up on which she rested her chin, the other almost meaninglessly going through the motions that she used to summon Madara, the late afternoon sun warming her skin. She had been waving the stupid key around for five minutes already and still nothing had happened. Maybe it was a sign that this wasn't her problem to solve?

Sakura sighed again which soon turned into a yawn.

"You're awfully impatient."

The medic exclaimed and almost fell out of the bed in surprise at the familiar voice. She rubbed her eyes from sleepiness and raised her head. Shocked she almost lost the grip on the key in her hand.

It worked, it finally worked.

Shaking herself out of her reverie she levelled a glare towards his calm exterior. "Where where you?"

"I was under the impression that you do not find my presence pleasant or has that changed since the last time?"

Sakura spluttered and turned her head to side to avoid his curious gaze and to hide the dust of pink that covered her cheeks. That was something she was trying to forget. She was immediately reminded why she detested his presence at times, not only did he bring back up _that,_ but he also had successfully cornered her. How was she supposed to answer that?

She grit her teeth, steeling her resolve. "Don't change the subject and just answer my question." She faced him again.

He seemed unaffected by her anger instead, once again, it looked like he was enjoying watching her get flustered. "I was doing research."

Sakura scowled and crossed her arms, knowing that he won't elaborate unless she asked. "What kind of research?" It still didn't explain how he could avoid her summoning calls.

This time Madara broke their eye contact and crossed his arms, letting his eyes roam across the view from the window. For a moment the pinkette thought that he'll ignore her question and change the subject again. "Ghosts." She opened her mouth to ask further and berate him for the short answer, but he cut her off. "I'll show you."

Sakura huffed. "How nice of you." She made sure plenty of sarcasm laced her voice. He was being more stingy with answers than usual, something must be up. She opened her mouth to make a biting comment, but was cut off when the door to the on-call room opened. The pinkette blanched.

"Haruno-san, you're needed in OR 3 for assistance!" The girl was one of her trainees, Aoi, and judging from her dishevelled appearance the blonde girl was stressed. It also might explain why the blonde had forgotten to knock or use a pager, which would have been the most efficient method.

She cast a brief glance towards the Uchiha, who was just smugly smiling. Her student paid no mind to him, almost as if he wasn't there at all. What?

To calm down the blonde girl she snapped out of her reverie. "I'll be right there just give me a moment."

Her student bowed. "I'll inform Shizune-san immediately." And left the room no soon after, closing the door behind her.

Sakura stared at the closed door for a moment, wondering what just happened. She turned to Madara, who hadn't changed his position at all. "What just happened? I-I...eh?" How did Aoi not see him? Did it mean that all this time he was invisible to others? No, that can't be it. If it was so he would have used such an advantage sooner.

"Invisibility. Although, it looks like I'm unable to make myself invisible to you. Though, that's a small factor that doesn't affect anything important."

Wide eyed she gawked.

Ever since she had made a contract with Madara she had become aware of the supernatural, things invisible to others. She had seen plenty of ghosts around Konoha and everywhere else, she had seen what happens to them, she knew what abilities they possessed, and those abilities were different from what summoned spirits like Madara and Hashirama had, as far as she knew. So, how did he get abilities that he wasn't supposed to have?

He snapped her out of her contemplations by putting a hand on her shoulder, making her squeak and shudder. "I though they required your assistance, _Haruno-san_?"

Sakura ripped herself away from his grasp, teeth clenched. She didn't miss the mocking tone he used to say her name either. "I'm aware of that." She pulled out his key. "But first I need to send you back before I can go anywhere."

He stopped her by grabbing her arm before she could go through the motion. "That won't be necessary."

She glared and jerked her hand free. "And why's that?"

He smirked. "I would very much prefer to explore the surroundings, and with me being invisible it shouldn't pose any trouble for you or anyone else, for that matter."

The pinkette narrowed her eyes. She could never know with this man. After all the scheming and manipulation she didn't trust him as much as she did before. Though, she supposed that he knew the risks of what would happen if someone would see him. "Alright," she agreed if just to rush this conversation along and get to her destination. She had already wasted enough time as it is.

Opening the door she stepped out in the bustling hallway of the hospital, Madara right on her heels. She cast a sideways glance towards him, her suspicions about his motives running through her mind. It felt weird having him around again. She had forgotten how insufferable and overpowering his presence could be. Hashirama definitely had lifted her spirits whenever he was around.

He fell in step with her, casually avoiding anyone who were in his path. No one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary, no exclamations or surprised gasps. Considering that Madara stuck out like a sore thumb with his appearance she took that as a good sign.

For now she decided to concentrate on the task at hand and ask him her questions after.

When she arrived she briskly strode inside, asking the medics around about the situation and letting some of them help her get in her scrubs. Shizune was already inside and working on the patient. She hadn't noticed at first that the Uchiha had followed her inside, but when she did she almost yelled. This was no place for a non-medical ninja to enter.

In the end, due to lack of time, she had to settle for a pointed glare that promised a lot of pain later (Naruto and Sasuke had learned quickly to fear that glare of hers), while he nonchalantly looked around, ignoring her completely. She also briefly noted how alien he looked among the medical equipment with his outdated attire and how much more intimidating, for some reason, that was.

Sakura shook her head to get the image of him out of her mind and to concentrate on work.

Sometime during the procedure she had leaned back for a moment to take a breather. She had been too immersed in her work to pay any attention to her surroundings, so when she had raised her head and had been faced with the image of Madara in the operating room shoving a hand through the wall Sakura had nearly cut her patient with a scalpel. It had earned her an angry shout from Shizune to focus. She had purposefully apologized and avoided Shizune's stare that promised a lecture later.

In her defence she had forgotten about the Uchiha's presence and seeing him do something like that had shocked her enough to lose concentration. Apparently going invisible wasn't the only thing he had learned to do. Invisibility, intangibility...what next? Plasma blasts? Flying? Jeez, she hoped not. He was already powerful enough without the ability to fly. That's the last thing she wanted to see.

She briefly raised her eyes again to inspect him. Seeing his face contorted in concentration and staring at his hand was a bit funny and she would have laughed too if she wasn't in an operating room surrounded by people. At that point she probably should have felt a bit more wary considering that Madara had obtained new abilities and might have more she wasn't aware of, and she didn't know how much it could affect her chances of stopping him.

After the two hour operation Sakura had gotten a lecture from Shizune about being tardy and professionalism in the work place, which had reminded her a lot the way she spoke to her own students. It was shameful and embarrassing. She blamed Madara for all of it.

That's why when she left the hospital, the damn raven haired shinboi still beside her, she barely contained her rage. If she wasn't in a public place and wasn't risking her sanity in the eyes of others she would have hit him so hard.

He had the gall to look content, strolling through the streets of Konoha, observing his surroundings.

She was irritated and flustered almost stomping her feet with every step she took. This hadn't gone along how she had planned it at all. She was losing control of the situation again, though in her defence he knew how to push her buttons just right and make her lose her sense of direction. Sakura knew she had some anger issues, that she let her emotions control her decisions, but Madara always managed to anger her with his arrogance and teasing, that she, more often than not, was on the brink of seeing red. Lately the problem had gotten worse.

He suddenly stopped her by extending his hand in front of her.

Sakura was about to make a protest, but he beat her to it.

"There's something else I want to test before we return back to your living quarters." He put his hand on her shoulder. She raised her hand to shove him away, but his grip was stronger. He turned to her and put his other hand on her other shoulder, leaning down to her level. "Sorry in advance if I fail and this turns out to be uncomfortable for you."

The pinkette flushed, her heart rate accelerating at the sudden turn of events. She didn't even know what he meant by all that, just his proximity alone set her on edge. What the hell was he going to do that it was going to be uncomfortable for her and in public no less? Why was he apologizing for something? Wait, when did he ever apologize for anything?

Now Sakura was very afraid.

What in reality happened next she hadn't prepared for at all or expected. She didn't even know how she would describe it. One moment Madara was in front of her the next he sort of walked into her and disappeared, leaving her shellshocked.

It felt like she was standing there for a solid minute, staring at the horizon before her, barely seeing the people going around her. She couldn't process what had just happened. She had seen a fair amount of ninjutsu in her lifetime, but never something like this, whatever it was. He literally pulled a disappearing act on her, no poof or anything.

She only belatedly realized that she was feeling colder than before and a lot stronger. She felt full on chakra, like it was almost pouring out of her fingertips. It was somewhat an exhilarating feeling, like she could do anything. It was uncomfortable and felt dark in nature, but all over felt good. What did Madara do?

It wasn't until her hand started raising on it's own volition that Sakura snapped out of her daze. She yelped and took a step back. She wanted to put it back down, but it wouldn't listen to her, continuing moving on it's own, flexing fingers.

As it was in a village where most of the people knew her someone was bound to recognize her and come up to her. An elderly lady had seen her distress and had walked up to her.

"Sakura, dear? Are you alright?" The woman peered up at her through her glasses, clear worry in her eyes. She recognized her as one of the vendors in the marketplace that she frequently visited. Kohaku had left her business to her son, but Sakura still saw the woman around a lot and every now and then exchanged a few words with her.

She didn't want to worry Kohaku as she herself wasn't really sure what was happening (in reality she was a line away from freaking out), so she settled for the most basic answer, "I'm fine. I'm just thinking about things." She smiled, albeit a bit forcefully and finally managed to let down her hand.

The older woman scowled. "You shouldn't overwork yourself, Sakura-chan. Please, take care of your health," she reprimanded her, even comically waving her finger around for added measure.

In any regular day the medic would have found that amusing, but in her current situation where her hand was moving on it's own again – dammnit! - she didn't have the heart to indulge in Kohaku's antics.

She let out a strained chuckle. "Ah, it's alright, Kohaku. I'm-" she was cut off when her other hand slapped her on the face. "-fine."

She could see the older woman's eyes widen in surprise. "Are you sure? Because-"

Sakura laughed this time, her hand still on her face. Why couldn't she move it? Fuck! "Yes, I'm sure."

Kohaku sceptically eyed her and the hand on her face. Yes, she definitely was a poster child for sanity right now, slapping herself in the middle of a conversation.

"I have to go now. Bye-bye," she heard herself say before she waved to the woman and waltzed away. She didn't even see Kohaku's reaction to her abrupt exit.

Sakura spluttered, unable to control her movements, even when her body jumped on a rooftop. Something wasn't right. She knew jutsu that could control others movements, but not a jutsu that could control movements and her voice. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'm sure you're aware of possession," she spoke again against her own will, albeit her voice was a bit lower pitched than it usually was.

She quickly puzzled everything together. "Madara?"

"The village looks a lot different, not sure if it's an improvement or not." The odd observation she said was all the confirmation she needed. Madara did possess her.

She was just joking before, she didn't actually expect for him to get an another ability, let alone such a high level one. Now she wondered if anytime in the future she should be afraid of a floating Uchiha. The image she conjured up in her head was comical at first, but knowing him he might exploit that ability to it's full extent and make it into something formidable. Yea, she didn't want to experience that. Having someone else in her body already felt uncomfortable enough.

"Was the slap necessary?"

She could feel her own lips pull into a small grin. "No."

When she had control of her mouth again she frowned. "But it was necessary in order to humiliate me, wasn't it?"

"You seem to be catching on."

Bastard. A flare of anger coursed through her body that made her want to hit him even harder.

She still couldn't move her body, but she could feel the late afternoon breeze, feel her own body, which in some respects was a relief on it's own. Now the question was, how does she get him out? It was nice and all, feeling, what she concluded, was their chakra merging, turning into something powerful, but she would very much prefer to be her own person.

She, also, guessed their chakra merge was the reason why she wasn't freaking out so much in the first place. Even though his chakra was foul and chaotic it somehow resonated with hers much calmer, cordial chakra. She could be wrong, but she suspected that it was because of her chakra and her experience with merging it with all kinds of people. As a medic it was one of the most basic skills she needed to know in order to successfully heal all kinds of injuries.

"So, can I have my body back? This is weird."

He didn't reply to her for a while. "While this situation is a bit bizarre..." She moved her head too look down and cupped her breast with her hand. Sakura wanted to scandalize for such an action, but he still held control over her movements. "...I have other things I want to test out while like this." He made her jump to an another roof and with a fast pace made her head towards the edge of the village.

Uh, oh. The pinkette didn't like how that sounded. This situation all over screamed bad news. Like always he didn't tell her anything, so Sakura was left with her own horrible conclusions and speculations.

For the next half hour he led her all over the village, doing what, she had no idea. He never let her get a word in. It irritated her how easily he had managed to take control of her body. She couldn't do a thing about it. He was superior than her in every way and it only served to remind her how weak she actually was. It lessened her morale yet strengthened it in other ways.

By the time he had led her to a clearing outside the village Sakura was feeling a bit delirious from the possession and his poisonous chakra.

Without a warning he made her go through hand seals for what, she belatedly realized, was a katon jutsu. She wasn't prepared at all when she saw herself spew out a huge wall of fire that nearly set fire to the trees.

She had never been able to perform the simplest of katon well, let alone something so grandiose. She could only chalk it up to their combined chakra. She didn't know if it was a good or a bad thing that he could perform his jutsu through her, though it was exhilarating to experience it. She could feel chakra crackling under her fingertips, just waiting to be released.

"What technique was that?" she flinched a bit when she actually heard herself speak again and not in that lower pitch Madara used. She hadn't seen him use such a jutsu before and when he made her perform it he didn't name it either.

"Great Fire Annihilation," he quickly supplied and went through the seals for an another jutsu that she didn't recognize.

Six fire techniques later and Sakura felt like her throat was burning. She didn't even know that so many fire breathing techniques existed.

"God, this is awful." She coughed and swept the sweat off her forehead that had accumulated there from the constant heat. She'd hate to be a fire type, the burning alone was uncomfortable. Why was he even making her do this? For what reason? Seriously? "Can I just have my body back now? I feel like crap." On top of the burning, the cold that came from Madara and his chakra was suffocating her. If at first she had felt energized now she felt exhausted.

"Not yet."

Sakura wanted to groan and punch him in the face, but considering that at that moment she couldn't do neither of those things she vowed to do it as soon as she could see his mug again. The punching part at least. She's been itching to do so for the past few hours. It's about time he gets what's coming to him.

The next jutsu he was trying to do was odd, she didn't know what to make of it. She could see herself going through the seals, but nothing wasn't happening until it felt like her eyes were on fire, which gradually extended into a pain all across her body. She could feel the chakra surge her body, ready to be released, but without having the necessary tool it had no output and it felt like her body was going to explode. She couldn't scream like she wanted either, Madara still holding control of her body, but it looked like he could feel the pain as well.

He left her body after a moment and it felt like a weight had lifted off of her. She fell to her knees, gasping for breath. Her throat was parched and she could feel herself bleeding from her eye. It was also a good thing that she was wearing fingerless gloves out of habit, otherwise her hands would have been singed from all the katon he made her do, she wasn't a fire type, so she wasn't used to the singing heat. "Please never do that again."

The whole possession ordeal had been bearable until the moment he started to test his jutsu through her, the absolute pinnacle of pain being when he tried to do what she guessed was a Sharingan technique. What gave him the bright idea that she, a simple kunoichi without any kekkei genkai, would be able to do Sharingan techniques? If she wasn't in so much pain she would scream his hair off for such a stupid thought. Testing jutsu her ass, he nearly killed her.

She watched Madara roll his shoulder and shake out his hand. "Can't promise that, but considering the results I have no inclination to do that again anytime soon."

"And that is supposed to make me feel better?" she scoffed and cleaned the blood that had rolled down her cheek while absently healing her other injuries and soothing the pain.

"No. It was just a simple statement."

She sneered to his indifference for her well being. What an ass.

Sakura yawned, the days events catching up to her. She left the punching to an another day, when her hands didn't feel like they were in a furnace. "Whatever. You got your fun or whatever, I've had enough near death experiences, I wanna go home and eat."

Madara didn't say anything, so she took that as her cue to head back to the village. She was too tired to fight with him, too tired to think about anything relating to him. Right now he was just a huge headache to her that she would very much prefer to ignore.

When she finally got home all she wanted to do was fall in her bed and pass out. She had had a long shift at work from early morning till the afternoon and to top it all off Madara had ran her like a dog all around the village.

She pulled out his key from under her shirt, with the intent to send him back to the afterlife.

The Uchiha stopped her hand in mid swing. "Not yet."

Sakura glowered, this time too tired to pull her hand free from his grasp. This was turning into a repeat of earlier, though this time she won't be as lenient. "I don't care. I'm tired and you have to go back," she growled meeting his dark gaze dead on.

He let go of her hand and stepped back. "If you haven't noticed I don't need your chakra as much. I also have a feeling that that key of yours won't be as useful as you think it is."

She sceptically eyed him and the mischievous grin that spread across his lips. She had been trying to not think about it for the past hour, but it was starting to look like her dominance over him was faltering. First the ghost powers he obtained somehow and now the compromise of her key. Okay, now that was too much. Though she guessed that he was right about the chakra. It felt like it took her next to nothing to keep him in the living world.

Heh, add that to the growing list of things she needs to look out for.

"Bullshit!" She swung the key in the half triangle motion while keeping eye contact with him for maximum effect.

Nothing happened.

Madara was still in front of her, arms crossed, a smug smirk on his face.

She swung it again, this time more desperately, her eyes widening each time she swung the key in fear. "The fuck?" Why wasn't this working? Will this be a new feature or some shit, where she'll have trouble summoning him and then the same trouble getting him back.

"Like I said – it won't work anymore." He plucked the key from her hand, effectively snapping the chain she had kept it on. Puzzled she watched him place the key in his pants pocket.

She rubbed her eyes from the exhaustion she felt. Was she dreaming or something? Was her already questionable control slipping completely? No, no, no! This can't happen! How was she supposed to get anything out of him if he dictates everything? She knew, from the amount of time she had spent around him, that trying to get any info from him was like trying to pull out your own teeth – needlessly painful and hardly ever worth it. She only ever got something when he was willing to share.

"Now that that's settled I think it's time to move out."

The pinkette took a step back, her eyes narrowing. This was turning sketchier and sketchier by the second. "What do you mean?"

"We're going to Amegakure."

"Now?"

She saw him looking her over, her messy, windblown hair, her dirty light blue shirt and shorts. "Not necessarily."

Sakura huffed, knowing where this was going. "No."

His eyebrows scrunched together. "What?"

She stood straighter, confident with her decision, even though she could feel the pressured glare Madara was sending her way. She's been around him long enough to be desensitized enough to his intimidating aura. "I'm not going to Ame. I have duties here in Konoha that precede everything else."

"I don't think you understand, Sakura-"

She cut him off before he could continue. "No, I understand. I just simply won't throw away my duties for _your_ agenda." Maybe she can't send him back right now, but she can still hold him back. As far as she knows he still needs to be near her to retain himself in one piece.

What did he want in Ame anyway?

He took a step forward, lips in a flat line, in clear annoyance at being interrupted.

Sakura unconsciously took a step back, her back two steps away from hitting the door.

"I'm not giving you a choice, Sakura. I've been lenient long enough. If I could I would ditch you the first chance I get, but I can't, not yet at least. We're going to Amegakure and that's final."

The pinkette pouted, feeling like she's being scolded like a child. Still she wasn't going to give up so easily. She wasn't scared of him...okay, maybe a little. Although the _not yet_ comment bothered her a bit. She might have just gotten a hint of something there, meaning she should be more careful and do whatever she can to hold him back. If she stayed in the village, kept him in the village then it meant that she could always get extra hands if things went south, which it looked like it was about to happen. She had hoped to go back to the way they were before, but apparently Madara had other plans.

Sakura crossed her arms and cocked out her hip in clear defiance, biting down the prickle of fear she felt from his murderous glare. "You don't control me, Madara. I can make my own decisions. And, frankly, I can't ditch my responsibilities to indulge in your absurd plans."

In a flash he was before her, pressing her against the door her cheeks painfully pressed between his fingers, keeping her head in place. He was livid, his features contorted in an enraged expression, the spinning tomoe of his Sharingan adding to the image. He was so close to her that she was practically caged in, feeling small against his larger frame. "This isn't up for discussion. You either come with me to Ame willingly or I'm going to drag you there by your fucking hair."

She gulped, stock still. This wasn't how she had envisioned it, then again she should have known that it would go this way. She finally knew what the books meant when they had described him as this intimidating monster that only wanted destruction. She finally could see it with her own eyes and she was absolutely terrified. If the eerily spinning Sharingan wasn't enough then the murderous aura was.

This only made Sakura realize that indeed before he had been gentle with her, patient with her because of circumstances, now when he had more of an upper hand he had no qualms about abusing it. She had pushed her luck too much. She had forgotten with whom she was dealing with, she had forgotten how large their power margin was and now she was facing the consequences.

She couldn't form any words from the way he was holding her face, not that she would have been able to formulate anything coherent anyway, so she just nodded, accepting the first option.

He snarled, leaning away from her, but not letting her go. "Stubborn bitch," he muttered before throwing her aside. Sakura barely kept her balance and avoided face planting in the wall. "Get whatever you need before we leave and do it as fast as possible because we're leaving now. And make sure your friends don't come looking for you."

Stiffly she nodded to his retreating back. When he disappeared in the kitchen Sakura rubbed her jaw and cheeks, feeling bruises form. She could feel herself shaking from adrenaline or fear, she did not know, but she figured that it wouldn't be wise to defy him anymore if she wanted to keep herself in one piece, so she ran to her room, grabbed her pack and did as told, her thoughts haywire.

Cold sweat settled across her brow and back, while the thought that she was in deeper shit than she thought flew through her mind.

What should she do? There is no way out of this. He took her key, she can't break it. Though she had an eerie suspicion that that wouldn't hinder him from getting what he wants. What can she even do?

A note.

Sakura stopped her packing for a moment to search her night stand for a piece of paper and pencil. She'll leave a note to whoever comes looking for her when she doesn't show up for work.

But what should she write?

If she wrote that Madara Uchiha was planning to enslave the world to a dream jutsu no one would believe 'cause he's supposed to be dead. If the note somehow ended in Tsunade's hands she supposed that her mentor would understand, since she knew about the kinjutsu she had used, though it was a long stretch for her to think that Tsunade would understand that Sakura had been foolish enough to make a contract with the ancient Uchiha. Writing such information down wouldn't help anyone anyway.

Then what?

Sakura pondered for a moment while throwing quick glances back at her closed door, listening for any indications that Madara might get impatient and come get her. She didn't have all day to do this. The situation she was in was far too extensive to write down in two sentences anyway. The better question was if anyone would be able to help her if she did manage to write down her situation, let alone believe such an out there qualm. People would be more inclined to believe that she had went nuts and decided to flee the village for a vacation or something.

Her mind set, she decided to write down, with a shaking hand, that she's going on a secret mission for an unknown amount of time. She'll ignore Madara's order about making sure her friends don't know. Fuck that. She will want for her friends to know what's happening to her.

She put the note on her pillow and proceeded to change in her ninja clothes. On her way to the kitchen she passed by the bathroom and took some toiletries as well.

She was in such a rush that she nearly ran into Madara in the living room. She squeaked and jumped back, expecting something horrible to come her way.

He instead hardly paid any attention to her. "Let's go." But she could see the mirth in his eyes at her skittishness.

The medic sighed, shaking her head. Yes, he was scary when he wanted to be, but she should remember that he still needs her, that he won't throw her away like yesterday's trash. She should keep her head clear and stay on top of the situation, figure out a way how this turn of events could work in her favour. _Think, Sakura, think._

She followed him out the door, strapping on her bag on her back and locked the door after she closed it. She gave her apartment one final wistful look before following Madara to the rooftops. She didn't know how long she'll be away from the village, how long she'll be able to exploit her position. Knowing that, she realized that she'll miss Konoha. She didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to anyone. _Stupid Madara and his stupid plans._ She knew that she partially was at fault here, but still…

She was about to ditch her responsibilities to the hospital, ditch her job as a kunoichi of Konoha, ditch her friends. It hurt, but if she wanted to get to the bottom of this, do something more than just be a gear in the shinobi system, she'll have to suck it up and do as he says, for now.

It was late evening outside, the sky painted in hues of orange and pink from the setting sun. People in the village were settling down, the buzz of the hot summer day wearing off. Madara set a neck breaking speed that Sakura could barely follow, let alone wallow in the sights of Konoha. The wind was whipping at her face from the speed, the evening cold making her skin turn into goose flesh.

Only when they were an hour away from Konoha her exhaustion hit her full force. Her feet hurt from the hours in the hospital, her body felt sore from the possession and her mind was sluggish from everything. She also couldn't bite down the feeling that she might have forgotten something.

Oh, crap! The pinkette tripped on a branch nearly falling off the next branch she landed on. She forgot to write the location in her note. In fact, now that she thought about it, now when she was calmer, her note made zero sense, she might as well not have written anything. _Stupid, stupid Sakura._ She could have tipped someone off about the location she was heading to. While she knew next to nothing what Madara wanted in Ame or how long he planned on staying there, it could have helped a ton to the people that would come looking for her. God only knew what kind of fuss Naruto would make when he found out that she was gone.

Madara had backtracked to stop on the same branch that she was currently standing on, berating herself for her tardiness. "Give me your pack."

"What?" Confused Sakura looked up at him and his extended hand.

He sighed averting his gaze to the trees. "I want to reach Ame by tomorrow evening and if we continue like this it'll take three days minimum, four max."

She scrunched her eyebrows together. The trip to Ame did take three days. Running such a distance in a day was insanity. She's not superhuman or something, there's no way she can run this in a day, plus she's already exhausted as she is. "There's no way we can make it there that fast."

"I can."

"That doesn't solve the problem."

He turned back to her and without a warning took her backpack from her. All Sakura could get out was a 'hey' and a growl from how easily he had managed to take it off of her. He slung her backpack across his armoured shoulder, which looked kind of funny if she paid enough attention to it, and without any qualms picked her up bridal style and set off towards the direction of Ame.

It all happened so fast that it didn't even register in her mind until the wind was whipping at her face again. Realizing her position she exclaimed, hitting him. "What the fuck are you doing?"

He cast a brief glance down before setting his sights back on the whizzing scenery. "Solving the problem."

Sakura puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. She was still pissed at him for all he did to her and after that face grab the last thing she wanted to do was touch him in any way. Still, for some god awful reason, she also had to bite down a blush. "I feel so insulted by this. You didn't even warn me." She felt like a helpless damsel.

"Then feel insulted."

"Fuck you."

The conversation died after that, but the medic still couldn't find comfort within the position she was placed in. She had crossed her arms, trying to keep to herself as much as she could, but she couldn't ignore their closeness. It was unsettling.

After a while she couldn't take it anymore. She did feel better now that she didn't need to run on her already abused feet, but her blush still hadn't subsided and she couldn't get comfortable at all. Knowing that Madara wouldn't change his decision about carrying her she tried a different tactic. "Can I at least ride piggy-back?"

"No."

"Why not? This is embarrassing."

"Because it's easier this way."

The pinkette huffed. "I kind of fail to see that." If anything carrying others in such a position was the most tiring way, but then again whenever has Madara done the most sensible thing? _Psh, let him suffer then._ She didn't think that she was super heavy, per say, or that she cared if it was hard for him, she just really, really wanted a change in position. This was too intimate, too close for her liking. It made her mind go to dirty places.

"Shut up for now and pass out or something. You're worn out and some rest will do you good."

Sceptically she raised an eyebrow at his choice of words. "Since when do _you_ care?"

All she got from him was a brief impassive glance. He didn't say anything after that.

Sakura curled her lip in displeasure at the lack of an answer. It was a tempting suggestion, but it was the last thing she wanted to do in the position she was in. Besides it was starting to get cold outside and the constant wooshing of wind would keep her up.

In the end, despite her own will, she did pass out, her fatigue catching up with her.

Xxx

It was after a day and a half when they actually did reach Ame. Madara wasn't pleased, but hey, she's still human and she has needs apart from sleep. Still it had been an

impressive feat nonetheless, it usually took her four days to reach Ame, three if she rushed.

They had hardly stepped into the village and Sakura already hated it, not the village itself, but the weather. It was dreary, windy, cold and pouring non-stop. The closer they had gotten to the village the more rain had started to fall from the sky. It was horrible. She was wet tol the bone. Her pack was soaked as well and weighing her down. Luckily she was allowed to walk on her own now that she had had enough rest.

She peered over at Madara and couldn't help but grin. If she looked like a wet dog then he looked a lot worse, with hair sticking to everything everywhere. She could only thank the heavens that her hair was short and a lot easier to tame. Although, unlike her, he seemed entirely unaffected by the downpour, despite wearing heavy armour.

She had no idea where he was leading her or why he hadn't turned invisible when he entered the village. People were staring and it made her uncomfortable. Even though she was somewhat accustomed to it, since her pink hair always caught attention of others, but this time it felt like the attention was divided between her and Madara. Her obviously because of her hair colour and him because of his attire that stood out like a beacon in the village where the primary colour was grey and blue.

She had taken off her hitai-ate for safety measures, but it was still entirely possible that people might recognize her as the Godaime Hokage's apprentice because of her pink hair. About Madara she wasn't sure. He obviously didn't care if people saw him, but Sakura couldn't help but be a bit apprehensive. People in Konoha knew what he looked like, though she wasn't sure about other countries. They knew his name because of history books, but the rest...she had no idea.

Sakura snapped out of her trance when they stopped in front of a tall tower, with pipes running all the way up to the top, no windows and faces on it, faces with mocking looks on them and ton of piercings. Even though she found the tower incredibly disturbing looking it somewhat fit into the highly industrialised village.

"You can't be serious?" The pinkette scrunched her face in distaste. "Are we really going into that...that _thing_?" She motioned to the tower before them, especially to the face above them. "It looks like a murderer's den or something."

Madara hummed beside her, a small grin on his lips. "It's a good thing that we're murderers then." He advanced towards what seemed to look like a door and without any hesitation opened it.

"Ha, ha," she let out a sarcastic laugh and followed him inside the creepy tower. "I don't know about you, but I don't murder people in my spare time."

Their conversation stopped short when she didn't get to go further than five steps before she froze from the sight before her.

In the huge room they just entered, under a dim light stood a heavily pierced, orange haired man with a haunting look in a cloak with red clouds on it. She did not know him, but the cloak told everything.

Madara had led her to, what she presumed to be, the Akatsuki's den, base of operations. If not, then this was a really flashy hiding place.

"Didn't think we'd see _you_ again." The deep, monotone voice of the orange haired man startled her. She was so glad that the eerie ringed, purple look wasn't directed at her. This was way worse than a simple murderer's den.

Sakura could only balk and stare. They knew each other? What was going on around here? How was this even possible? From what Sakura had gathered Madara had been dead for decades, dead by the hand of the Shodai at the Valley of The End. This man's acquisition implied that Madara had been here before. But how? She wouldn't have been able to make a contract with him if he had been summoned before.

She turned her attention to the Uchiha, whose face was just as stony as the man's before them.

"I don't leave things unfinished."

She ping-ponged at looking at Madara and the Akatsuki member, lost at what was happening. The air in the room was stiff and Sakura very much felt like an intruder between the two men. Neither of them moved, but she could practically taste the tension on her tongue.

That Akatsuki member was no regular member, with how he held himself and faced Madara. Undoubtedly she was standing before the leader of the whole organization and apparently said leader was acquainted with Uchiha Madara enough to throw accusations.

Suddenly the purple gaze turned her way. Sakura shrunk back. "Haruno Sakura." Her mouth went dry. He knew her name, which wasn't that much of a surprise, but the way he said her name - dry and without any emotion - made her want to disappear. There just was something about those eyes that unsettled her even more than the Sharingan. "What's your purpose for being here?"

Sakura didn't think that she could talk. This was way worse than her first meeting with Madara. At least then she had been in a familiar place and the Uchiha, while had had the same intimidating air to him, didn't have those haunting eyes.

"She's with me." Admittedly, Sakura was glad that Madara spoke for her. Whatever she would have said wouldn't have been as effective sounding, as shameful as it was to admit.

The ringed gaze left her and went back to Madara. The pinkette almost sighed, relieved that she didn't have to face those eyes anymore.

"I don't suppose you'd want to join back with Deidara, that is if you'd want to do missions for the benefit of the organization again? We are in lack of funds right now." The Akatsuki leader changed the subject to something else that wasn't her, which Sakura was grateful for. She was fearing that he would press the matter more.

Sakura turned to face Madara again and gauge his reaction. Interestingly enough he was surprised with something the orange haired man had said, though it wasn't that visible to the untrained eye. The crease between his eyebrows could easily be mistaken as irritation, but Sakura knew better. She had spent enough time around him to catch little things like that.

This little titbit from the Akatsuki leader gave her a new clue. She knew Deidara as Sasori's partner. She killed Sasori four years ago and since Akatsuki worked in pairs then it meant that Madara had been assigned as Deidara's partner. She kind of found it hard to imagine. Then again, nothing had made sense for the past few minutes.

"I'll make my own time. I'll join when the mission will include the capturing of a bijuu."

The other man raised his eyebrows a bit, she guessed in understanding or surprise, she honestly had no idea, all of his facial expressions looked the same. "And the girl?"

Sakura wanted to pout at being called like that, but held back when the eerie gaze was back on her.

Madara quickly glanced her way as well and at that moment she felt like she's a show dog or something. "She'll be with me."

"Very well. Am I also correct to assume that our previous agreement stands as it was?"

She noticed that Madara was hesitating longer than usual to answer the Akatsuki's question. Odd. "Yes."

"Good." The pierced man turned around and the tense atmosphere lifted. "It's been a while, but you can have your old quarters. Speak to Konan about the girl's room. I'll see you later today to discuss further details." He left the room, disappearing somewhere in the darkness.

She hated this place. It was so dark everywhere, cold and stuffy. Bleh. The one ceiling lamp hardly illuminated the room. Even with the pierced man gone the atmosphere felt strained.

Madara soon headed the same way the Akatsuki had left through and Sakura ran to catch up to him, entering a long hallway out of concrete with barely any light illuminating the way. There was something fishy about this. She couldn't read exactly what from his face, but something was off. His reactions and the info she knew didn't add up.

She was guessing, but she had a feeling that..."You totally had no clue what he was talking about half the time, did you?"

He turned to her, giving her a blank stare. He didn't say anything, but it was all the confirmation she needed.

Sakura smiled, giddy that she finally wasn't the only one constantly in the dark. "You totally didn't. This is gold." She laughed, not even trying to hold back. So he wasn't as acquainted with this place like he wanted to be. Hmm...then what did it mean? If Madara had been a member of this place then he would have know what the Akatsuki was talking about, but he didn't. The Akatsuki leader did mention that he had disappeared. She knew that he couldn't have been here before through the jutsu she used to get him here and even if he did use a different jutsu to cheat life, wouldn't he be more aware of what's going on?

It was a stretch, but there was a chance that there had been someone else. Someone posing as Madara? It didn't sound possible. But then what? Did he just forget the details about the Akatsuki while in Limbo? She was so confused.

Madara rubbed the bridge of his nose and swiped his wet hair out of his face. They reached a juncture in the hallway. "Go find Konan. I have to go find someone myself." He turned to leave to the left in the juncture, but the pinkette grabbed his wrist, stopping him in his tracks.

"And you're just going to leave me like this? Alone in this...this fucking rape cave?"

Madara rolled his eyes and snatched his hand back from her. "Don't be melodramatic."

Sakura grimaced. "But this place is creepy." She didn't want to whine, but this tower made her highly uncomfortable. There was something about this place that screamed 'we kill people in our spare time'. She was not prepared for this, she was not warned about this. She would have preferred to have know that she was going to enter the headquarters of the frickin' Akatsuki, so she could have been mentally prepared for this shit. But nooo, he couldn't say a single word to her. She even asked and all she got was elusive answers like 'I need to see someone' and 'it's the next step to the plan'. Fuck that.

He patted her head. "You're a big girl, you can handle yourself."

The medic snarled and swatted his hand away. "Don't patronize me."

"Then don't act like a child." He smiled at her and turned to leave.

She pouted and watched his retreating back. "Jerk."

For a moment she considered following him, but then decided against 'cause she didn't want to look like a lost puppy. Besides she was too angry at him to even look at him. There was also the possibility of running away, back to Konoha, but somehow she doubted that that was a smart idea. Apparently he trusted her enough to leave her alone and find Konan. She didn't think it would be wise to break that trust.

This left her alone and freezing in this dump of a tower. She shivered, rubbing her arms and headed the opposite way Madara had went. The last thing she wanted to do was get lost in this thing, but if she wanted to move things along she'll have to find this Konan person.

Things had went south faster than she had been able to comprehend. Just two days ago she was back in Konoha, helping people in the hospital, chatting with Ino and Tenten. Now she was out of her comfort zone with no clue what to do next. What could she even do now?

She wondered through the dimly lit hallways, searching for any indication of life. She had fucked up her chance at telling others about her whereabouts, the pressure getting to her. She doubted they'll be able to find her now, considering that Ame was an assassin village and information hardly ever ventured out of it. She was in the heart of Akatsuki and she'll have to work for them, live in this dump.

Hmm…maybe she could be a spy? Konoha and other villages with bijuu had been trying to locate the criminal organisation for a while and if she could find a way how to communicate with the outside she could provide a lot of info. That actually didn't sound like a bad idea. This was once in a life time opportunity.

Mind set, she straightened her back and ventured further into the tower, confident in her hastily thrown together plan. She'll work out the kinks later, but for now she'll concentrate on getting used to this place 'cause judging from Madara's words they were going to be here for a while.

* * *

 _I want to thank you all for the support for the first chapter. I honestly didn't expect to get so many favs, follows and reviews. A huge thank you to the reviewers:_ Guest, MysticMoonlight474, Guest and Suzululu4moe.

 _Also, this chapter came out later than I wanted simply because it's double in length of my normal chapters, I got side tracked with drawing and I kind of lacked motivation to write. Though I still have plenty of ideas for this story. idk, if I'll be able to wrap this up in the next chapter, maybe the one after that, but we'll see._

 _Though I'm curios to know what you guys think about Madara here. Have I managed to keep him in character considering the circumstances? And what about Sakura? Of course she's not her canon self, but I am wondering if I am managing to make her likeable. What do you think about Sakura's choice to summon Hashirama? Was it a good choice or not? What about bringing back Madara, was that a good decision?  
_

 _I originally wanted to make Madara a lot meaner by the end of the chapter, but that somehow all went in the wind as I was writing. I was just having way too much fun writing it the way it is and if I had made Madara meaner it might have strained his relationship with Sakura and the fun would have been drained from everything. The story is kind of serious, but I am trying to keep it in a light mood._

 _In the next chapter we'll see how well Sakura gets along with the Akatsuki and how well she'll do in hindering Madara._

 _Thanks for reading._


	3. Cold Blooded

_I apologize for the lateness of this chapter, life got in the way. To make it up for the long wait this chapter is a bit longer than usual and also if you'd like you can check my Tumblr Rhearenee-Magane for some Madara and Sakura sketches I did while I was adjusting to my life in the dorms.  
_

 _Without further ado, let's see how is Sakura faring with the Akatsuki._

* * *

Sakura stared at the grey ceiling, her sight blurry. Despite just waking up she felt tired. Honestly, she didn't even know what time it was. There were no windows in her room and no clocks to indicate the time. Everything in her assigned room was in a shade of grey or brown. Compared to her bedroom back in Konoha, which was all in shades of white and light pastel colours, it sucked balls. The room was barren from any kind of furniture as well, apart from the bed she was laying in, a night stand and a dresser.

She rubbed her eyes and turned on her night lamp, the soft, orange light colouring the bleak room in warm tones. She could faintly hear the pitter-patter of the rain outside. The rain hadn't stopped once ever since she had come here.

Three days ago, when she first found Konan, a blue haired woman with a paper rose in her hair and the most piercing, yellow eyes she had ever seen, had showed her her room and with a brief explanation told her where everything was. Konan also led her to, what she presumed, was her room and had issued her an uniform. She had bean wary about wearing it, but since she was now, more or less, a part of the organisation she had to abide to their rules.

Konan had also warned her about acting up and about other members of Akatsuki. At first she had felt a bit insulted that the other woman had thought that she'd be stupid and deliberately put herself in danger, but after she had mulled it over and actually met one of the other members, a disturbing looking man, with half white, half black skin condition and a huge fly trap on his shoulders, she'd understood that the other woman had been trying look out for her in her own way.

A few hours after meeting Konan and the plant man, Sakura had to talk with the Akatsuki leader, she had later learned was called Pain or Leader-sama, as other members addressed him. There in his office she had also met up with Madara again. Judging from the Uchiha's facial expression, looking like he'd been sucking on a lemon for the past hour, the Uchiha and Leader had been engaged in a heated discussion before she had broken the tension with her presence.

The meeting hadn't been much different from their first encounter with Pain. She had felt chakra buzzing all around the room, the two men too proud to back down. It had been horrible and smouldering. She'd been around powerful shinobi most of her life, but whenever there was a pissing contest like this going on, she'd rather much prefer to avoid it and let the involved parties resolve their issues by themselves.

At the end of the meeting she was assigned as the medic of the Tower, providing medical services to whoever needed it. The other members came and went quite rarely, so she'd have a lot of free time. She could see from the way Pain was looking at her, impassive, but clear judgement in his eyes, that he didn't trust her. So her free hours had been filled with helping Konan run the village. She wasn't fooled, she knew that it was the Leader's way of assigning a babysitter to her, to follow her movements. He hadn't asked her why she had decided to defect from her village though, which was odd.

She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it also had looked like Pain's demeanour towards Madara had changed. Whereas before Pain had been expressing more camaraderie, welcoming Madara back in his own way, now it felt like he was scrutinizing the other man, expressing a level of suspicion.

Sakura couldn't make heads or tails from it. Obviously whatever they had been talking about had set both men on edge. She was curious, though. She wasn't stupid enough to pry for info in front of the Akatsuki leader, but when she and Madara had stiffly left Pain's office she had inquired him about it.

Her questions were answered with what she presumed was his way of telling her to fuck off.

After that she hadn't felt inclination to poke the hornet's nest any more, so she had promptly made her way back to her room, deciding to ask him later, when he wasn't as pissed.

She had hoped that with her helping Konan with village business she'd be more privy to the Akatsuki's dealings as well, but due to her shitty luck, it was just that – the ins and outs of Ame, nothing she could use against the Akatsuki. She'd gone through the same paperwork when she'd studied as Tsunade's pupil, she hadn't found anything new. Though, what did surprise her was that Akatsuki, mostly Konan, in a way were Ame's Kage, running the assassin shinobi village on the side. That had only left her concluding that while Konan took care of the village as the Kage, Pain was the one that ran the Akatsuki.

Another setback. Her plan as a spy hadn't been working out so well. So, her only option after that was Madara 'cause she sure as hell wasn't going to try her chances with Pain. Those eyes still unsettled her.

She had tried to approach The Uchiha in his quarters the next day. Due to him still having his own key and her being able to detect it she hadn't had much of a problem locating where exactly he was hiding in the Tower. With them so far apart now she briefly did wonder how does it affect him. Somehow he had been able to reduce the chakra she needed to keep him here, but the fact remained that he did need it, no matter how small the amount, and if she went far away enough for long enough he might possibly go rouge.

She hadn't been successful in her questioning. Madara hadn't been happy to see her. He had shoved her out of his room, requesting for her to leave him alone and for her to mind her own business. He had still been pissed and had broken her wrist from the force he had used to throw her out.

She had retreated back to her room after that, anger rolling off her in waves, mending her arm in the process. Something had changed, Madara was different and it bugged her that she had no clue why. She could only guess that it was because he was closer than ever to achieving his goal and had decided to completely shut everything else out, effectively turning into a grade A asshole.

Konan had kept her busy for the rest of the time, not that Sakura had wanted to do anything else at that moment anyway. Madara could go and choke on a chode, breaking her wrist like that. Just, fuck him. Tch, she wasn't angry...okay, maybe she was.

It had been one of the reasons why yesterday evening she had broken down in frustrated tears, rampaging through her room. She had been so fed up with everything. She was tired and a little bit homesick. No matter what she did she couldn't win. No matter how hard she tried and fought back, she couldn't win. Worse yet, whenever she had thought that she had finally gotten something, gotten the upper hand, the ancient Uchiha proved her wrong. He was always two steps ahead, letting her get her hopes up before he crushed them like he crushed her wrist.

Sakura exhaled, letting her grip loosen on her sheets. Okay, okay...maybe she still was _really_ furious with him. It didn't help that her soothing thought last night had been of her kicking his ass into next week. She had been twitching from anger and frustration, tears falling down her face almost uncontrollably. If there was one positive to come out of her embarrassing breakdown then it was that she had found Hashirama's key thrown haphazardly in her weapons pouch. She had forgotten all about the other shinobi spirit, her frustrations with Madara taking front seat.

Sakura turned her head, shoving her messy pink hair our of her face to look at her night stand where she had last placed the brown key. It was like a beacon of hope, it had opened up a line of whole new possibilities.

She smiled at the key, picking it up from its spot and hugging it to her chest. As far as she knew Madara had no idea that she had made a contract with Hashirama, and it didn't look like he was doing that 'I'm going to pretend I don't know to shove it in your face later' thing either, too preoccupied with whatever it was he did in his room.

Later on her mind had went to the gutter after his a proclamation of wanting to be left alone. She kind of blamed Naruto for that. Though in reality, she knew that he probably was doing something relating to the Eye of the Moon Plan, it's all he ever did. What exactly, she didn't know and it was concerning. She cringed, but she almost did wish that he was actually whacking one out in his room because it meant less things for her to worry about.

The pinkette shook her head, trying to get the images out of her head. This was not the time for dirty shit like that. She needs to figure out how she's going to stop this, how she's going to contact Konoha. Having Hashirama would help, but it's probably for the best if she left him as her escape plan. Summoning him now wouldn't benefit her at all, she had no information on the Akatsuki apart from their HQ location, and Madara would know about it as soon as she did it and she didn't want to think about what would happen after that.

Her only option now was to scout the Tower for any clues, pester Madara, maybe Konan too, and see what kind of missions Pain will give them.

Xxx

Two weeks later Sakura had more or less met with the other members of Akatsuki as well, due to a meeting. Four days of that week were spent on a scouting mission for the Shichibi, which according to the plant man Zetsu, as Sakura had later learned, was spotted near Takigakure. She obviously had to accompany Madara on the mission, but what she hadn't expected was for Deidara to join too.

Madara hadn't cared much for the blonde shinobi's presence at all, only sparing a single pointed glare the blonde's way at the beginning of the mission that promised pain if he were to disobey. He was following the task at hand meticulously, whereas she had been wary, always casting a side glance towards the Iwa missing-nin, after all, the last time she had seen him, he had been using the Kazekage's dead body as a cushion.

Thankfully Madara had ditched the red armour and when on missions wore the Akatsuki cloak with the kasa like her. At least he cared about being inconspicuous when on missions 'cause heaven knows who they might run into.

The Uchiha had been too focused on the mission to pay anything else any attention, which had meant that whatever she had been trying to ask had been promptly brushed off. Not wanting to deal with his callous attitude that had only left her with Deidara.

At first she had feared that the blonde might hold some kind of grudge towards her for killing his partner, but she had been proven wrong. Apparently missing-nin didn't create attachments to people because Deidara had been surprisingly friendly and hadn't mentioned Sasori once. In fact, all he talked about was his own creations, explosions and how for the past years he'd had some rookie partners that had died during missions.

It hadn't been his first time on a scouting mission like this, so he had been quite loud, babbling with her and already making predictions that they won't find anything because, apparently, they've had shitty luck like that for a while now. It got to the point where Madara had told him to shut up. Sakura had snickered and burst into laughter when Deidara had drily commented how Uchihas always seemed to have a stick up their arse. That little comment had earned Deidara a kunai thrown in his shoulder.

Sakura had clammed up after that, avoiding Madara's irritated gaze. She had healed the cursing Deidara later and had kept conversation to a minimum. Though, Deidara had no sense of self-preservation and had kept making all kinds of quips towards the Uchiha, only this time loud enough only for her to hear. Deidara clearly held some sort of dislike towards Madara, despite only knowing him for a short while, which Sakura found odd, but didn't question.

In the end, like Deidara had predicted, they hadn't found the kabutomushi. Though, she had sort of made a friend in Deidara, her resentment towards him pushed aside. The explosive blonde could be irritating at times with his overzealous love for his art, but other than that he was nice company, which she had been greatly yearning for because staying in the high strung atmosphere most of the other people in the Tower emitted had given her anxiety by extension. Deidara didn't ask redundant questions about her or Madara, for which she was grateful for, although he wasn't afraid to say his opinion on the matter.

By the end of the week she realized that other members more or less shared Deidara's opinion: she was a suspicious add on to their ranks, though not unwelcome and they had no clue why she was with an Uchiha. None of them liked Madara. The Uchiha didn't make an appearance often, but whenever he did others sneered his way and the funny thing was that most of them didn't even know who he was, Madara never introduced himself, others just knew that he was an Uchiha, the resemblance to one of their members unmistakable.

One thing she had forgotten about was that the one Uchiha that had caused great grief to her teammate was in the organization as well. She had no idea how to act around him (honestly, she really, really wanted to end him), so she avoided him most of the time. Itachi had this look that said that he knew something she didn't and it pissed her off. He was no different than Madara.

Itachi was hard to read in general. He was nothing like she had expected for him to be; a crazed killer that thirsts for power. She knew that Itachi, being a Leaf nin, knew who Madara was, but it looked like, just like Pain and Konan, he made no move to share that information with other members.

Missin-nin, honestly. They all were so secretive, throwing side way glances whenever she passed through a room, observing the smallest of movements, always on guard. They never asked questions, though. It was one thing Sakura knew very well, that questions got you killed. You either knew or if you didn't you asked only if you could kill your source. She guessed that might be the reason why she's not getting much out of Madara any more, she lost her leeway and she's only alive because he needs her. The Uchiha still scared the piss out of her at times, though. There was this invisible line she knew not to cross with him unless she wanted to experience the Mangekyou.

The meeting they had been assembled for had been a debrief of Akatsuki's current situation, it was then when Sakura finally got some useful info. It was deafening to find out that the Akatsuki were missing the last three bijuu, which meant that Naruto was in more danger than she thought because they knew he was in Konoha. If only she could find a way to contact Konoha or send a message and warn them. She hardly ever got a chance to conjure up a way to do it in an inconspicuous way. When Konan wasn't breathing down her neck it was some other Akatsuki member she had to tend to (cough, Hidan, cough) and when she was finally alone she knew she couldn't do anything drastic either unless she wanted for Madara to know about it. It was frustrating, but she tried to take it in stride.

After the debrief each Akatsuki member got assigned a bijuu they would have to capture, that being their mission for the month. Failure wouldn't be acceptable if the pointed look Pain had given them was any indicator. The bijuu capturing had been dragging on for too long and Leader was running out of patience. Sakura suspected that this mostly was because of Madara and his addition to the organisation that put things back into gear; he and Pain had been spending awfully a lot of time together.

Hidan, Kakuzu and Deidara will have to capture the Shichibi. Itachi, Kisame and her (and by extension Madara, who had conveniently decided not to show up to the meeting) - Hachibi, while Pain and Konan will go after the Kyuubi.

A ball of dread had weaved itself into her stomach after that and it didn't want to leave all throughout the day. This was really happening and she was as useless as ever, even when she was at the heart of the problem. This coupled with the odd tingling she had been feeling during her time in the Tower made her want to throw up. She had chalked the tingling up to her being in a creepy place with creepy people all around her, but over two weeks later and the feeling had only intensified. It was different, it made her feel confident and powerful, something she was far from being right now. Her chakra was different because of that and Sakura didn't know if she should accept it because it kept her calm and collected when needed, something she needed to be to survive in the den of vultures or investigate the phenomenon further.

In the end she left it alone 'cause right after the meeting Konan had demanded that everyone stay in the Tower for the night while she examined them, which had occupied her thoughts after that. The pinkette previously had complained to the blue haired woman that the medical files of the members were naught and if there ever was an emergency or other she'd want to be sure of their medical history, previous injuries and allergies, all basic things a medic needs to know to provide continuous care. She honestly hadn't been expecting for the aloof woman to listen to her request.

So, she had done medical check-ups on all of the Akatsuki members, which ranged from awkward to irritating as in the case with Hidan and to an extent – Deidara. The only member she had found to be the most likeable had been Kisame. While he was scary by appearance, she was pleasantly surprised to find out he wasn't as pushy as other members had been or as cold blooded. He easily made small talk with her, listened to her instructions and admitted his eagerness to working with her on their next mission.

She couldn't say the same about his partner.

She constantly had to keep herself in check when tending to the Uchiha. Sasuke hadn't told her much about his brother, but she knew enough to know that he was the reason her teammate was constantly out on missions, constantly searching for more power, putting himself at risk, that the man before her was the reason why her teammate was so anguished, wracked with revenge and hatred. And the man had the gall to look perfectly content with the way he is while sitting in front of her, like he hadn't murdered his whole family for power, like he hadn't psychologically abused his own brother.

Sakura hated him, way more than she did Madara, and wanted to stab him in the eye with a fuckin' scalpel. The only reason she didn't was because of Sasuke, because she knew that taking the chance of revenge away from Sasuke would only worsen his already unstable condition. It pained her to see her teammate like that, to see him walk such a self-destructive path, but she had learned early on that there was noting she could do to help. Her love hadn't been enough, her and Naruto's friendship hadn't been enough. All they could do was silently support him in his decision and be thankful that he hadn't left the village completely. The last thing she wanted to do was to drive him away by being pushy.

"You're bad at hiding your emotions."

Sakura snapped out of her seething thoughts to sneer at the Uchiha. He was second to last she had to check-up before she was done and she very much would prefer to be done fast. If he just could get dressed faster... She averted her eyes from him and tried to hold back a snappy response. The grip on her pen and chart increased, her writing nearly tearing the paper.

"Why are you here, Sakura?" He was standing before her, finally dressed, towering over her with his height, a neutral look on his face, the Sharningan that he constantly kept active almost glowing. During her examination she had made some startling discoveries about his health, but it was nothing that would garner him her sympathy, if anything it was karma for all he had done. He wasn't going to scare her with the Sharingan or his presence either.

The pinkette grit her teeth. "It's none of your business."

He titled his head. "What's your relationship with Madara?"

His questions irritated her further, especially the turn they had taken. He knew something was up. They hadn't known each other while he still had been in Konoha and their brief encounter all those years ago hadn't amounted to anything, but it still irritated her how easily he was able to read her. Fucking Uchihas. She knew she wasn't the prime shinobi example, that she tended to wear her heart on her sleeve, tended to be open with what she was feeling, but that's why she was a great medic. She had been keeping her cool when she was around other members, at least she hoped. No one had said anything. Until now.

"Why do you care?"

"I do not." His cool tone made Sakura grimace. "I'm just curious why you of all people allowed yourself to be dragged here against your own volition."

Her writing halted. She finally raised her head to meet his red gaze. A trickle of panic passed through her. This was threading towards dangerous territories. If she hadn't been suspicious about him before now she was. He had been paying attention to her and even in the small amount of time they had been around each other he had been able to see through her. She didn't know what the correct response would be. "And, pray tell, what gave you that impression?"

Itachi leaned against the bed behind him, letting his eyes roam over her frigid form. "You're tense and wary of everyone around here. At first I thought that it was you being cautious, but later on I noticed how you looked at everyone, how you analysed your surroundings and how you never stray far from Madara, even now, he's just down the hall with Leader-sama."

Sakura gulped, putting down her chart and pen on the table behind her. Suddenly her ample med-bay felt small and constricting, the bright fluorescent lights making her feel like she's under an interrogation. Her curious question had pretty much given away her position already and his admission of noticing her strange behaviour only strengthened his statement.

"So? What are you going to do now? Save me from my supposed _imprisonment._ Psh, I don't believe it." She crossed her arms, trying to appear brave.

Itachi got up from his position and straightened his cloak. "I'm not going to do anything, but it looks like you are." He turned to leave. Sakura opened her mouth to ask for him to explain, but he beat her to it. "Everything is not as it seems, Sakura. If you wish we could be of help to each other."

The pinkette moved from her spot to stop him and demand him to explain his cryptic words. She didn't get far in her action as just as Itachi was leaving Konan came into the room, ready for her check-up. She cursed Itachi and his ambiguous way of speaking, ignoring the odd look Konan was giving her. She bit down her frustration and strained a smile at the other woman, asking for her to take the seat which previously had been occupied by Itachi.

She was bothered by what the Uchiha had said for the rest of the day, she couldn't concentrate on anything. What did he mean by that? How could he help her? Why would he even want to help her? _Everything is not as it seems..._ His words kept echoing in her mind. She couldn't conjure up the energy to hate him as much any more, his words skewing her view of him even more, leaving her confused and thirsty for answers. If she wasn't sure that he knew more than he let on before now she was one hundred percent sure.

It pained her to admit it, but he might be her chance of getting somewhere, unless he was just fucking with her. Itachi didn't come across as a guy that would enjoy messing around like that, though, what did she know? She barely knew the guy. Still, considering that Madara had shut her out, she was 'shit your pants' scared of Pain, of what he would do to her once he found out what she was doing and Konan was impervious to anything she asked, Itachi might be her only option.

They still had a weeks time until Zetsu gathered them enough info on the Shichibi and Hachibi, so Sakura took that free time to seek out Itachi. Of course she couldn't just walk up to him and ask, that would cause suspicion in others. She didn't know what Madara thought of Itachi since she hadn't talked to him in a while, and she didn't want to find out what he would do if he found out that she might be plotting something with the other Uchiha.

She hoped that this won't blow up in her face.

Xxx

The pinkette was able to corner Itachi a day later in the common room with the excuse that she'd want to assess his health specifically. She did garner an odd look from Kisame, who at the moment was the only other person in the room, but she only smiled his way assuring him that she only wants to make sure Itachi is in tip top condition for their mission. The Uchiha in turn didn't say anything and simply followed her to the med-bay.

She turned on the lights in her "office" and locked the door behind him, quickly weaving the hand seals for a jutsu that Tsunade liked to use to soundproof her office. She could never be too careful. When she turned around to face him he had already walked up to her table and was skimming over her messy work space with his eyes.

"Explain," she demanded, her voice disturbingly loud in the large room. Admittedly she still couldn't stand the sight of him and her dislike towards him showed in her voice.

Itachi wasn't perturbed by her at all, instead he turned around to face her, nonchalant. "I assume you've made up your mind then."

Sakura bit down the urge to growl. She didn't seek him out to talk in circles. "Don't jerk me around! I came here to get answers not to get chummy with you."

He averted his eyes, sighing slightly. "What do you want to know?"

Immediately the first thing she wanted to ask was why did he torment his own brother, why did he have to kill his own family for such superficial reasons, but she held back those questions for later. She came here to find out what he knew about the Akatsuki, what was it that had made him want to help her. "What do you know about the Akatsuki, about Madara?"

His red gaze met her green one once again. Sakura briefly noted his similarity in appearance to Sasuke; the same eye shape, the same straight nose, the same raven hair framing his face. The only differences she could make out were the deep lines on his face, making him look a lot older than he actually was, the way he was handling himself and the impassive look he always wore. She didn't miss the exhaustion in his eyes either. She knew that he was terminally ill, having it discovered during her examination. The illness will take his life sooner than later. He hid it well, but soon it will reach a stage where he won't be able to.

"Pain intends to use the bijuu to force peace upon the world, to destroy the shinobi system." Her eyes widened at his words. It wasn't that different from what Madara wanted after all. "I do not know what Madara wants, but he seems different from the last time I saw him. Ditched the mask as well."

Tilting her head the pinkette curiously eyed him, taking in his words. "You knew Madara before?"

Itachi didn't answer for a moment, looking like he was struggling to find an answer. "He was a member here, under the alias Tobi, but he disappeared a couple of years ago."

Sakura raised her eyebrows. If what he was saying true, then it meant that Madara had found a way to cheat death, still there were a couple of things that didn't add up and Itachi's words only made the oddities larger. "Kind of hard to imagine that, since when we first came here Madara wasn't as aware of things as he'd liked to be."

It was Itachi's turn to peer at her in puzzlement.

Sakura grimaced, knowing that she'll have to elaborate her side of the story if they wanted to put this puzzle together. "Madara isn't human, he's a spirit that I summoned here using a kinjutsu. I've been around him for the past six months or so."

The Uchiha's eyes widened slightly, she would have missed the expression completely had she not already been used to inexpressive Uchihas. "Then does it mean that someone else kept summoning him before?"

The medic sighed, taking a seat on the closest bed to her. "No. It's a tricky jutsu that allows a person to come back from the dead once with the help of a key and since I was able to make that contract no one else has done the same before." She purposefully let out other smaller details, just in case. She couldn't be sure if she could trust Itachi fully. She didn't know what were his reasons for lending her a helping hand, for all she knew he was doing it to rat her out to Pain or something. Jeez, she hoped not. She knew that for the time being Madara would keep her safe, but she didn't want to test her chances.

The room plunged into silence after that for solid five minutes. Itachi had taken the seat at her table and had been in deep thought, while she silently watched him. He was so different from Sasuke, from Madara in mannerisms; definitely more composed, quiet but not in the brooding sense. She didn't get the vibes of a killer from him, like she did from Hidan or Zetsu, for example, though people could be misleading.

Sakura grew tired of the quiet, the humming of the fluorescent lights above them deafening. "Why are you helping me?"

The Uchiha turned to face her again, expression unchanged. "Why did you summon Madara?"

The pinkette bit back the urge to growl and throw the nearest object from her at him. "Don't answer my question with a counter question!"

"I apologize, but before I say anything I must be sure I'm not making a mistake."

She laughed drily. "I could say the same thing."

Neither of them dared to make the first move after that. Sakura could feel the tension rise and set on her skin like dew. She didn't want to break and talk first, but staying in the room too long might rouse suspicion. Itachi wasn't doing anything yet she could feel the weight of his gaze, it was nothing like Madara's, but she found it to be equally unnerving. If they wanted to get anywhere one of them will have to speak. Sakura was ready to bite the bullet if just to get things moving along.

"It was an accident. I didn't want to summon him specifically. I don't know what I expected at the moment I enacted the jutsu, but Madara just happened to be the one to answer." Once again she purposely let out the part where it was basically her fault that Madara was able to do as much as he's been able to do in the first place under the contract with her. She knew she was at fault and she didn't need someone passing judgement on her. She was already trying to do her best to stop his plans as soon as she found out about them, it just happened that her choices hadn't been the best. She had let her own emotions get in the way, as always, and cloud her judgement, but she was willing to jump great lengths to fix it.

Itachi didn't comment on her answer, still she saw judgement pass through his eyes. She decided not to dwell on that too much and not dive into his reasons for looking down on her. She knew she was flawed, not perfect, especially in the eyes of the Uchiha. She had learned as much from Sasuke and Madara.

"I decided to help you because I think that our goals will coincide." When he finally answered her question Sakura couldn't help but stare at him dubiously. She wasn't aware he had goals apart from gain power and all that jazz.

She chuckled. "Excuse me if I find that hard to believe."

"It doesn't matter what you believe. I think there are more pressing matters to sort out than my credibility or your confidence issues."

Sakura frowned, not liking his tone. He didn't say it with a lot of emotion, but in her eyes his accusations were insults. Still, she hated to admit it, but he was right. They could talk in circles about trusting each other or the validity of each others words and it wouldn't solve the puzzle before them. "I agree, though I'm curious; what do you think are my goals?"

He raised an eyebrow at her question and it was the most expressive she had seen him ever be. Was her question really that weird or what? "The safety of Konoha."

She leaned back on her hands, the corner of her mouth rising. It wasn't how she had been defining it in her head, though essentially it all did come down to the safety of her village, the safety of the whole ninja world. "And I am to assume that you seek the same thing?" The rest she wanted to say was left hanging in the air, she knew she didn't have to say it, she was sure he was aware.

The Uchiha sighed, breaking their eye contact. "Something like that."

"Okay, whatever, it's not important right now. What is, though, is how has Madara been able to be Tobi, when he was supposed to be dead, and it can't be through the use of the kinjutsu I used. As far as I know there aren't any jutsu that can bring a person back from the dead. I'm kind of starting to be under the assumption that someone could've impersonated Madara, after all his name holds a lot of power."

"Meaning that there's an Uchiha that had defected the village before the massacre."

Her eyes widened. "What makes you say that?"

Itachi was quiet for a while again. He seemed to be really careful with words when around her, especially when it came to his past. Did he regret what he had done? It was hard to say from his facial expressions alone, but it was suspicious. "Someone who introduced themselves to me as Madara helped me massacre my clan. After that he offered me a position in the Akatsuki, claiming himself to be known as Tobi in the organisation, and he possessed the Sharingan undoubtedly."

Sakura swallowed thickly, the new line of information making shivers run down her spine. She hadn't expected for him to talk about the Uchiha massacre so freely. She didn't know what to say. This plan Madara was setting up was more extensive than she thought. What else had he done when he was supposed to be dead?

Itachi broke her spiralling thoughts by speaking up again. "Though that is not to say that there aren't other jutsu to cheat death. There are. It could've very much been Madara, though what is concerning is that the current Madara is different from the one I've met; no disguises, no _funny_ voices or pranks."

She eyed him sceptically for a moment. Funny voices? Pranks? Who the hell was he talking about? She could never imagine the Madara she knows do something like that. Then again it was funny to imagine Madara speaking like a clown. She had to stifle a chuckle from that mental image. "So, I could be right? Because I feel like the Madara I know would rather gouge his own eyes out with a kunai than act like a clown."

"Very much so."

"Still it leaves a lot of blanks."

"Hn."

The pinkette leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, a small smile spread across her face. He even made little sounds that were similar to Sasuke's. It was oddly cute.

She had no idea what to do now when they had come to the conclusion that there is someone else out there, pretending to be Madara, and that was only one problem. Madara never told her outright, but she knew that he was hiding something else, a trump card of sorts. He was acting way too confidently for someone who was in a lesser position.

"Do you know of Madara's plans?" Itachi's deep voice brought her back to the present.

Sakura cleared her throat and righted her position. "Yes, the Eye of the Moon plan. I don't know all the details, but I know that he intends to put the world under a dream genjutsu with the help of something called the Rinnegan."

The Uchiha drew his brows together. "I was under the impression that he sought revenge on the clan and chaos."

She had to agree with him on that, it had been her first impression of him from the books. Later when she actually met him, she hadn't cared what Madara wanted, believing that she'd held more power over him to limit his actions, which had been a foolish mistake on her part. For two weeks he had kept quiet about his plans, letting her get used to his presence and then he'd gradually had switched the dynamic between them and taken control of the whole situation, pushing his own agenda to the front line.

"I think now I understand why Pain and Madara are working together."

Sakura raised her eyebrows at his admission. "Why?" She kind of understood why they were working together, though from what she'd seen the two men could hardly find a common ground between them, which had led her to believe that their goals might differ or that they simply couldn't stand each others overwhelming presence.

"Because Pain has the Rinnegan."

"What!? That's the Rinnegan! I thought that it was a myth, an unattainable dojutsu, at least that's what I read in the library." That explained why it was so eerie and gave her the creeps – it held a power like no other.

Itachi absent-mindedly fiddled with the corner of a paper sheet she had left on her table. "It is. I do not know how Pain got it, since Rinnegan is an evolved Mangekyou Sharingan and he clearly isn't an Uchiha."

She cussed under her breath. "This is a lot complicated than I imagined." She groaned and fell back on the bed she was sitting on, letting her arm cover her eyes. "Why does life hate me?"

She heard Itachi chuckle and she curiously peered under her arm to see his amused expression. "Life is never going to be easy, especially for a shinobi."

Sakura pouted and lifted herself up. "I know that. It's just that this situation is like a fucking maze that has secret pathways, dead ends and who knows how many corners. As I go further, I get more lost as new pathways get uncovered and it's annoying. Fuck Madara and his fucking plans. He just had to make everything as convoluted as possible. I don't even know how he intends to put the whole Eye of the Moon plan together. What's the point of the bijuu if he intends to use the Rinnegan to cast the genjutsu?"

"I don't know, Sakura. I'm just a tool being used by the Akatsuki, like every other member here – we're all in the dark. All I know is that there's a promise of a war brewing between the five shinobi countries and that the Akatsuki are going to be the root of it."

"That sounds serious." She hadn't thought that far about this, though now when she did it felt very possible. Considering how far back this all went she had to wonder if it was her fault that everything had escalated so far. Undoubtedly the ancient Uchiha would have found a way to cheat death with or without her help and Akatsuki had existed long before she had, from what she knew. "What can we do to stop it?"

Itachi got up from his seat. "The best we can do is stall the inevitable." He made his way towards the door.

She sprung up from her place to block his way. "Wait! We're not done yet." She still wanted to ask him about the massacre and hopefully discuss more about what they had concluded. Her personal dislike towards him aside, they needed to work together to get to the bottom of this and they had just started.

He spared a quick glance her way before walking around her and opening the door, dispelling her jutsu in the process. "It's all the time we got for now. You've been very helpful, Sakura. Thank you."

Sakura could only gape and watch his retreating back, until he turned a corner in the hallway. They didn't even come up with a plan or anything, just exchanged information. Though, she supposed she should have expected that from the pragmatic Uchiha. They were supposed to be enemies, despite working under the same roof now and even though he had revealed to her that he isn't loyal to the Akatsuki, he had been careful in choosing his words. Apart from the info she had learned about the Akatsuki and Madara she hadn't learned anything about Itachi and why did he massacre his clan. It bothered her and she knew that she might not get another chance to talk to Itachi again.

The medic groaned and ran a hand down her face, suddenly feeling drained from energy. She heard footsteps approach her and when she looked up she groaned even louder. "Go away, Hidan." He must be the reason why Itachi decided to leave so suddenly.

Hidan grinned and leaned with one hand against the wall, caging her between his body and the wall. "Something tells me you're not happy to see me."

"I wonder why?" She let plenty of sarcasm lace her voice. Hidan was one of the most vile, rude and annoying people she had ever met. Everything he said was accompanied with a string of curses and insults. Now she didn't think she had the right to reprimand Hidan for cussing, since she did it quite often herself (she blamed Tsunade for getting her in the habit of doing so), but even she knew when it was too much. Not to mention the man possessed no sense of self-preservation, meaning he had no filter and no fear for anything he did. Sakura had found out that part of it came down to him being immortal, though she suspected that he'd be a major jackass whether he was immortal or not.

He came a bit closer to her, ignoring her sarcasm and she had to bite back the urge to plaster herself flat against the cold concrete wall. "Say, what's the deal between you and that Uchiha?"

She raised her eyebrow. "Itachi? Nothing, I was just checking up on his eyes and health." A trickle of panic entered her stomach. Was Hidan onto her? She didn't think him capable of conjuring such curiosity. If there was someone in the organisation who didn't hide his opinions from anyone then it was Hidan and she'd heard enough times his opinion about Pain and how much of a heathen he was, which she had translated as his hate towards Akatsuki. Honestly, most of the time she didn't understand what he was even babbling about, entwining speeches of Jashinism (or however it was called) in his speech.

Hidan chuckled. "No, not that fuckstick. I'm talking about the other shit stain Uchiha here, the one with the _holier than thou_ attitude that pisses me off."

The pinkette formed an 'o' with her mouth, understanding who he was talking about. She shrugged. "Nothing, honestly." Which was a lie, but he didn't need to know that, in fact Hidan didn't need to know anything. "Why you're asking?"

He finally leaned back, giving her some breathing space. "Are you fucking him? Because it looks like you're fucking him and I want to know what's so special about you that that cunt is keeping you around. You a good fuck or something?"

Scandalised and repulsed Sakura took a step back, her back hitting the wall. H-her and Madara? Doing _that_? She could feel her face warm up and an elephant do a somersault in her belly. She could n-never… That's blasphemy! Why would she? Still her mind started to provide images and she had to clench her eyes shut and shake her head to get the lewd images out. Stupid Hidan.

"So it _is_ true."

She snapped her eyes open, the warmth on her face spreading down her neck. She shook her hands around. "N-no! I couldn't! I-it's..." _Oh, please, ground, swallow me up._ She scooted to the side, to where the opened door to the med-bay was. She wanted out of here and away from this conversation, and rethink everything and deal with her hormonal and perverted mind. Seriously, fuck Hidan for even daring to mention something like that and devaluing her to a sex object.

A large grin split his face. "Oh? Then what is it? You two stick close to each other really often which led me to believe that you're fuck buddies. No one in this godless shit show likes each other that much that they'd want to spend every fucking minute around each other or be in the vicinity within each other. Jashin knows I'd travel across to Kiri if I could, to get away from String-face."

She wasn't a sensor, but she still reached out with her chakra to check if Madara really was in the vicinity because this was the second time someone had pointed out that her and the Uchiha never strayed too far from each other. She honestly didn't know that it was that noticeable, she hadn't even seen Madara for two days. She came up empty, either her sensory abilities too weak or her target was masking his chakra, which probably was the right reason.

The medic frowned, letting her flush die down. "It's none of your business. Fuck off."

He tilted to her level, his pendant swinging out from his barely closed cloak. "Ooh, dirty talk. I like it."

Sakura growled, clamping her nails in the door jamb. "What do you want from me?" Because, seriously, she had no idea. It partially sounded like he was flirting, but she could never know with Hidan, for all she knew he was just looking to get a rise out of her for shits and giggles, which he had done before.

Suddenly he snapped back to his height with a sneer on his face. "Why would I want anything from you?" He didn't hide how he let his eyes roam across her body – judging, assessing.

Her grip on the jamb increased and she could hear the wood crack. Her eye was twitching and the urge to deck the asshole in front of her in the face was strong. "You tell me? You came up to me asking questions," she grit through her teeth.

"Well, yeah because I want to know what's so special about you, why does that cunt-face continue to keep you around like a pet."

The next thing she knew there was a loud smash and she was panting from the force she had used to deliver her punch. She had successfully sent Hidan through a wall and into the room across from her med-bay. A huge cloud of dust enveloped the whole hallway, making her eyes water and nose itch. She covered her mouth and nose with the sleeve of her cloak, coughing and tried to wave the dust away with her hand.

That had felt satisfying, finally getting her chance to physically let her anger out. She'd been holding back for so long.

She stepped forward and through the hole in the wall only to see that she'd sent the Jashinist through not one but three walls. She couldn't see much of the room she'd destroyed because of the dust, but it looked to be some kind of archive room, so was the next room. Broken file cabinets and papers were strewn about, the smell of mouldy paper stronger than the smell of dust. The papers and small rocks crunched under her feet as she approached the end of the hole.

Hidan was at the edge of the third room, buried between the debris, coughing and cursing up a storm.

She wasn't done with him just yet. The tingling that had plagued her for a while came back and her hands were itching to do some damage. She felt in control and stronger than ever. Chakra was crickling at the tips of her finger tips, ready to be used. She swung her chakra enhanced hand and the wind behind it cleared the dust from her target.

She was surprised to see Hidan grinning at her, blood dripping from his mouth and nose, but she didn't let it show in her expression. The large hole in his chest was hard to miss. If she didn't feel so pissed off she might have marvelled at the sight of his body mending itself back together, seeing something like that as a medic was wondrous. The pinkette scowled at him, pushing chakra to her knuckles. She was going to beat the shit out of him and it's going to feel amazing.

"Fuck! Pinky! That was some punch. You might have just become my favourite person here." With his uninjured hand he swiped away the blood that was trickling down his chin. He disregarded her threatening aura, instead challenging to do more damage with his violet eyes. He moved the debris off his body and with the help of a huge slab of concrete got back on his feet. "Whatcha gonna do now, Pinky?"

Sakura bared her teeth, clenching her fists, feeling an insatiable sense of bloodlust enter her. "Obliterate you cell by cell." If she'd been in her right mind she would have scared herself with how low and menacing her voice came out.

Hidan bellowed. "Sounds kinky." He snapped his broken arm back back in place and Sakura almost winced at the sickening crack that resounded in the room. With the back of his hand he cleaned his face from blood again, positioning himself for an attack.

The pinkette wasted no moment to charge at him after that, aiming a chakra enhanced punch towards his head. He swiftly dodged it and in inertia she ended up blowing up the pile of debris he had been laying in. She growled, swivelling on her heel to see where he had gone. Her action once again had enveloped the room in a cloud of dust, limiting her vision. The tingling in her chest was nearly bubbling, seeking violent release.

She heard movement from her left and she turned just in time to see two shuriken fly her way. Barely avoiding getting impaled by the shuriken, she leaped towards the way they had come from, chakra buzzing around her hand. She grinned when her hand met with flesh and judging from the laughing and cursing that came she had hit him hard. Hidan wasn't the best when it came to dodging it seemed, unless he let her hit him on purpose, though why would he want to get hit on purpose, she had no idea. Still she had successfully _disarmed_ him with her punch.

The force of her punch had cleared the dust from around her and broken file cabinets were revealed to her, splattered with blood. Glancing down, she noticed the severed arm as well. It looked mangled and Sakura didn't want to think what a bitch it would be to attach back.

Expanding her senses she listened for movement. Hearing shuffling near the blown out hole she pivoted around. Through the layers of dust she saw the Jashinist move about near the blown out hole. She didn't dwell too long on what he was doing, the tingle clouding her senses and charged at him.

This time he sidestepped her easily. His appearance had changed to that of a skeleton with black skin and white bone like markings. It made Sakura pause for a moment, but she jumped back when he swiped at her with a spear he slid out of his sleeve.

"How 'bout we raise the stakes here, just for fun." He eyed his healing injuries and missing hand.

An involuntary tremble ran through her body from the look in his violet eyes. She had no weapons on her and she wasn't completely in her right mind to come up with suitable strategies to take Hidan down beyond punch hard. She'd only heard rumours about the Jashinist's abilities. How she was going to counter them, she had no clue.

"Do your worst, dicknose," she growled, clenching and unclenching her hands, feeling the familiar roughness of her gloves.

He grinned, baring his teeth. "I plan to, bitch." He came at her, spear poised in front of him, ready for an attack.

Sakura dodged his attacks, slashes that seemed haphazard. She clenched her teeth, almost tripping on a piece of debris. He was going to corner her like this. Letting her eyes stray from Hidan she assessed her surroundings. It was hard to see from the still settling dust and her tunnelled vision. She felt like she was fighting not only Hidan, but something else in her. The tingling was expanding and she belatedly realized that it felt very much like chakra, a familiar chakra that wasn't her own.

Unfortunately for her the Jashinist noticed her divided focus and hacked at her with his spear in a more methodical manner, managing to slice her shoulder, leaving a deep open wound.

She hissed and swung her deadly fists his way, though Hidan had already retreated to where he had been shuffling around before. Her shoulder stung, but it had cleared her mind enough to understand what was happening. She sent healing chakra towards her injury, stopping the bleeding, though she will need stitches to mend the wound completely. Raising her eyes from her arm she noticed that Hidan had drawn a symbol on the ground, while she had been searching for him amidst the dust before. A sudden trickle of panic entered her. She hadn't meant for this to go so far, she'd lost control of herself, and it looked like the silver haired man was about to enact his symbolic jutsu on her, not something she wanted to experience first hand.

The pinkette scrambled around with her eyes, trying to find something that could distract him. She didn't get to interject before a swarm of papers flooded the room, effectively stopping Hidan as well. Sakura almost sighed from relief.

"There will be no more fighting. Go back to your rooms unless you want to clean this up." Konan materialized from the herd of papers, scolding them like children. She spared a simple glare towards her before she turned to Hidan, mouth drawn in a tight line, possibly thinking that he was the instigator for this fight.

Sakura didn't need to be told twice. Clutching her injured shoulder, she ran for the door, listening to Hidan's protests in the background. She wasn't going to correct Konan's assumptions.

She didn't know what to feel after that incident. Partially she was glad that Konan had come and disrupted whatever heinous things Hidan was about to do to her, the other part, the part that was clouded by the invasive chakra, wanted to continue fighting, enjoying the challenge of something unknown.

By the time she reached her room, where she had started to work on her injury with her personal medical equipment, she was seething. She had some time to think and mull things over. She knew that the tingling was chakra and that it had made her bloodthirsty, other times calm and composed, that being the reason she had left it alone in the first place. Though after this incident she knew whose chakra it was. The only question remained; how had he injected in her and why did it affect her mood?

Oh, she was going to share a few strong words about this. _That seedy little fucker._

Xxx

Two days later Sakura felt like she was sitting on a ticking time bomb. Only six days left until Pain and Konan went after Nartuo, six days until she'll have to do the same to a different person. The days went by slow, but not slow enough in her opinion.

She was a bit apprehensive about approaching Madara. She wanted to smack him with her opinions of him and his manipulating of her, but she wasn't sure what good it would do. Madara turned mean real quick when he was disrupted from something he found crucial and Sakura didn't want to test how far he would go to make her leave. She was stubborn, but she wasn't dumb. He reminded her of Ino on her period, when the blonde would suddenly get aggressive if she looked at her the wrong way or when she made her biting opinion about a topic Ino found sensitive known.

It was stupid and she did realize that she just compared Madara to a woman on her period, but it was the only way she could describe it – his sudden change of behaviour. Admittedly, she also missed her friends. All of them had busy lives just like her, but they all did try to make room to see each other at least once a week. Now when she was away from home, none of that was possible. Gods, she missed Ino and their bantering, Naruto and his stupid jokes and endless talks about ramen.

This stuffy tower was going to drive her crazy, she couldn't even go out and train. Konan kept her busy most of the time with Kage work. Whenever she was left alone, she did try to see if she could at least summon Katsuyu-sama discreetly enough to send a message to Tsunade or anyone else in Konoha, it didn't matter who as long as she managed to do it. She'd figured that in her situation it probably was the best tactic she could do.

Itachi had said that the best thing at the moment they could do is stall, so that was going to be her plan for now. That's why she'd went over tactics on how to get rid of Madara. She knew she couldn't best him in a fight even in her wildest dreams, especially with the Akatsuki around. Which meant that her only chance was going to be by breaking the key. She just had no clue how she was going to do that. She was starting to feel desperate, but she didn't want to resolve to bringing Hashirama in, not until she'd tried everything to get the key. Surely she could use other tactics other than fighting to get the key off Madara.

She had been sitting in her room for the past two hours meditating, cleansing herself. Konan had given her some free time and since no one needed medical attention she had decided to spend her free time preparing. She wanted to be in full control of herself for when she attempted the summoning jutsu. Letting her breath out through her nose she opened her eyes and got up from her bed, shaking out her stiff limbs. Now with the Uchiha's chakra purged from her body, she truly did feel less restrained. It did make her wonder; when did he even get the chance to _infect_ her with his chakra?

The pinkette pushed those thoughts aside for now. She expanded her senses to check if anyone was near. Coming up empty she warded her room with a few concealing jutsu that should hide her actions and presence. Sighing she checked again if she could sense anyone. She smiled when she wasn't able to expand her senses past her room and brought out a kunai to slash her finger. Going through the hand seals, she concentrated to use as little chakra as possible to summon a small version of Katsuyu-sama. Placing her hand on the ground she watched as the slug formed.

"Sakura-san, it's been a while."

The said girl grinned when the familiar slug moved it's optical tentacles around, assessing her. It worked and the slug was at the size of her finger, which was just perfect. She picked it up. "Katsuyu-sama, I'm so glad to see you. Could you relay a message for me to Shishou?"

"Of course, Sakura-san."

The pinkette wanted to jump in joy. Something finally was working out for her. "Thank you so much."

She went on explaining as much as she cold about her situation to the slug, adding the oncoming attacks of Akatsuki to her message and that Konoha should be prepared for it. The slug poofed after that, with the promise of sending the message.

The pinkette leaned back on her haunches, sighing, satisfied that this had gone over smoother than she'd expected. She should have thought of this sooner. The stress of hurrying it up most probably got to her, delaying her in the process.

She got up on her feet and dispelled the concealing jutsu before anyone noticed anything. She stretched her limbs, a smile on her face. Her mood dropped when she suddenly felt a chakra signature near her door. _Crap, crap!_

She swivelled on her heel only to nearly fall back on her ass as every possible curse word on the tip of her tongue slipped past her lips.

Madara was in her room, arms crossed, an unimpressed look on his face. She kept forgetting that he wasn't a regular human being and could phase through doors. He only ever flaunted it around her, hiding it from other Akatsuki members. Still she wished, he wouldn't use those freaky powers at all.

Sakura composed herself, putting on the most displeased scowl she could make. "Can't you knock like a normal person?"

"You've been avoiding me."

She drew her eyebrows together at his matter of fact tone. "No shit." It's something any sane person would do when dealing with him and it wasn't like he was making an effort to see her either. Although, now when he was here his presence was awfully convenient. Was he on to her? Sakura bit back the ball of dread that weaved itself in her stomach. She didn't know what to expect. It probably was best to play dumb for now.

He didn't appreciate her sarcasm if the way his expression darkened was any indication. Thankfully for her he didn't comment on it, instead he uncrossed his arms to show his hand or more like his fingers that had the tops missing. "I assume that these are the consequences when we have no contact for extended periods of time. My form is losing its stability."

Her eyes widened at the sight. Fascinated by the phenomenon she threw away her inhibitions and grabbed his hand, missing how the sudden contact made Madara flinch. His hand was colder than it usually was and oddly enough it was clammy, though it wasn't something that interested her. Inspecting each finger she noticed that it wasn't like the tops were cut off, more like they had disappeared. She even experimentally moved her own fingers through where the missing appendages should be, which only confirmed what the Uchiha had said.

Sakura discreetly peered up at him, noting his unreadable expression. He wasn't looking at her instead he was paying close attention to her ministrations. He let her touch him without complaint, which by this point she found odd and slightly unsettling, but she didn't let herself ponder too much about it.

She took his other free hand as well and clasped them together between her much smaller ones, warming them up. With the contact she could see the invisible parts of his fingers regain their visibility again. She knew that it was because of the chakra she was providing to him unconsciously by now. Still the phenomenon in front of her didn't make her forget how angry she was with him. She cut off her chakra leak, halting the rate he regained visibility.

"Why should I help you?" She tried to keep her tone neutral while keeping her eyes glued to their conjoined hands. She noted all the small cuts and bruises on his hands that were there despite him being a manifestation of chakra, a form he'd taken of how he sees himself. It was a meticulous attention to detail and possibly memories he'd want to remember. She herself had kept the scar she'd gotten from Sasori as a reminder despite possessing the capabilities to heal it without leaving a scar. It was a notion she didn't think Madara found important.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to find out."

She raised her head to meet his dark eyes, confused. She almost wanted to pull away.

He closed his eyes, sighing. "I'm disappointed, though I probably should have known better than to expect something from a weak no name nobody."

Her grip on his hands increased. He didn't even flinch, which only irked her further. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She briefly expected for him to break free from her touch, but he made no move to do so, instead he cracked his eyes open to stare at her in ridicule, a small grin forming on his lips. "Not so bright either. You're full of surprises today, Sakura."

The pinkette grit her teeth, biting back the urge to snap his wrist the same way he had done it to her. "I know what you're talking about, asshole. I just can't believe that you really sunk so low as to _infect_ me with your putrid chakra, controlling me. That's disgusting!"

Madara clicked his tongue, losing his grin. "What's disgusting is that you thought that I would allow you free reign when I knew that you're plotting against me. You're insulting me."

She growled, missing how with her erratic emotions she had given Madara enough chakra to stabilize his form again, getting the tips of his fingers back. "I'm insulting you!? You've been insulting me every chance you get, you hypocrite! Don't talk to me about being insulted when I've had to endure your insults for the better part of the time we've known each other. Selfish bastard." She purposefully emitted the part about which Madara had been right. She had been under the impression that he doesn't find her a threat at all, thus found no need to bother with her. She should have known better than to underestimate a pedantic Uchiha.

Only now she noticed that in her anger she had stepped closer to him, so when he jerked his hands free from her grasp she felt the same elephant do a double somersault in her stomach. She cursed herself.

"I don't have the time to indulge you in your pathetic spouts of anger." He turned to leave, only this time by using the door.

Sakura balled her hands. "Oh, so it's better to run away than admit that I'm right, is it?"

He stopped in his tracks to peer at her over his shoulder. "This isn't about who's right and who's not. This is about not engaging in a pointless conversation where you're trying to mend your pride."

She could feel her anger boil. So that's how little he thinks of her, that she's not even worth talking to any more. She wasn't done here. This was the closest she's been able to get to him in weeks. If there ever was a chance to try to get the key back then this was it. Madara clearly was irritated by her, running away like a coward when she'd thrown his poor treatment of her in his face, thus distracted.

The Uchiha thought that he had successfully stumped the pinkette, so he had been prepared to take his leave, except Sakura wasn't. She grabbed the edge of his shoulder and using her monstrous strength turned him around and pinned him to the wall with her hands on his chest. She noticed momentous surprise pass his face, but it soon was replaced with annoyance.

Sakura had no clue what to do now that she'd gotten this far, she'd been acting on an impulse. If he wanted he could easily get out of her hold, though for some reason he stayed put. She wanted to loom over him like he'd done so many times to her. It was at that moment when she cursed her petite stature and his height, that even when she's trying to be intimidating she has to look up to him. _Fuckfuckfuck…_

"Sakura." His tone was low with clear warning in it.

The said girl could feel the sound reverberate in his chest. She kept him at half an arms length away, but the situation still seemed a lot more intimate than it should have been. She could only chalk it up to the lack of armour on his part that had been sort of a barrier between them the previous time something like this happened. This time she could actually feel the firm planes of his chest. Or her mind simply had taken a trip through the gutter without her permission. Gods, was that fiery smell around him intoxicating.

"Madara," she echoed, her voice husky.

They were locked in a stare down with Sakura not knowing how to proceed and Madara waiting for her next move. He was trying to scare her off with the dark look; drawn brows and scowl. Unfortunately for him the pinkette was past being scared of him. She was fed up, she was tired and she wanted to go back home. She didn't care what the cost would be, she just wanted for all of this to stop, for this never ending headache that was Uchiha Madara to get out of her life. She hated him with a burning passion yet that traitorous elephant in her stomach kept doing acrobatic tricks and she couldn't stop the blush that spread across the bridge of her nose. She usually wasn't this bold and the realization of what she'd just done was starting to catch up.

She saw that Madara was growing tired of this and she knew he was going to interject with an insult or something of that nature. So when she saw him move to open his mouth she beat him to the punch.

"Shut up." She fisted his shirt and pulled him down to her level, meshing her lips to his. Admittedly it was a bit clumsy, her nerves getting to her and she might have went a bit too rough with her teeth, though she got what she wanted – the Uchiha was stunned.

The pinkette had no clue what she was doing or why she kissed him again. She could only guess that her mind fell back to the first time she did this and how it had surprised him, letting her get the key off of him. Except this time the circumstances weren't as accommodating for her, they key wasn't in his hand – it was in the pocket of his pants.

A tepid arm came to rest on her cheek, angling her head more to the side and what was a one sided kiss before got returned. The action shocked her, making her breath hitch and cold tingles run across her flesh from the touch. The thought to reach for the key flew out of her mind.

She didn't get to properly comprehend what had happened before she was pushed away.

The Uchiha said something...asked...she didn't know, the surprise of what happened buzzing in her head and drowning out any other sounds.

Sakura stayed slack jawed. Her hand was still latched into his shirt in a white fingered grip, her other hand resting on his bicep. She stared at her hand, avoiding his gaze, her heart beating wildly in her chest. What just happened? Why did he kiss her back? He has nothing to gain from that. Why? Hesitantly she raised her head to meet his eyes. He was expecting an answer to a question she hadn't registered in her mind. The pinkette nervously swallowed, loosening her grip.

He took her hand that was on his chest by the wrist and tilted a bit down to face her. "What do you want?" The question was demanding and harsh while in contrast his eyes gleamed in devilry.

She licked her lips, trying to calm her nerves. His eyes followed the action. She knew what she wanted, though she wasn't sure what he wanted. He had nothing to gain from her now, so why? Why was he acting like he actually wanted to devour her? It made no sense. What was he playing at? Nothing ever was simple with him. She wasn't going to pretend like she knows how he ticks, even after all these months Madara was an enigma to her, though she knew that such an open display of affection wasn't something he showed easily, especially to her. There had to be an ulterior motive. That must be it. She just has to figure out what it is or get to the key before any of it matters.

"What do _you_ want?" She fired his question back.

He let go of her hand, face expressionless. She had expected for him to be irritated by her counter question instead he closed the distance between them. Her breath hitched. He kissed her again with the same fervour and roughness he had done it the very first time.

She felt powerless, her heartbeat pounding in her head. His bangs tickled the side of her face when he brought one of his hands to her cheek to angle her face. It was too much to take in all at once. Her hand came to rest in his mane of hair as his travelled to the back of her head. She couldn't escape when his teeth started to nib her lip, he was holding her in place. She whimpered, confused and dizzy.

Managing to break away from his hold, she inhaled. She needed to clear her head and concentrate on her objective. It was damn hard to do that when he kissed her like that and, sweet gods, looked at her like something desirable. She was afraid to ponder what all of this meant – how he had answered her inquiry, yet the question still slipped past her swollen lips.

"Why?"

He chuckled, removing his hand from her hair he changed their position, effectively caging her between the cold wall and his own body. What she had been trying to desperately do came naturally to him. "Because I can and because you started it." He captured her lips again, easily slipping his tongue in her mouth. A hand came to rest on her hip, at the edge of her shirt.

A soft mewl escaped her when he moved to pepper her jawline with small kisses, and his hand started to shift under her shirt. She let her hands drag through his hair as he moved lower to her neck. Sakura struggled to keep a clear mind, to remember with who she was doing this and for what she needed to reach.

His answer kept echoing in her mind. It sounded lackluster like an excuse for something else, though that something else wasn't something she was going to believe. He was right – she did start this, but he had all the power to stop it, yet he did the opposite. It didn't make any logical sense. Then again her enjoying his ministrations didn't make any sense either.

Maybe they didn't hate each other as much as they let on? She had though that she had successfully pushed all her weird feelings for him aside, found enough things to loathe about him to settle her mind. If she had met him in a regular setting she definitely would have passed him, finding his belittling humour, pretension and perfectionism too much to handle. Yet she still tortured herself with dealing with him and she couldn't figure out why. She knew of Madara's reasons even less.

She fisted his hair and dragged him back up to her face, kissing him again in fervour, battling for dominance. She could feel his cold fingertips trace odd patterns against her skin, slowly moving higher and making goosebumps on her flesh. She knew if she let this go on for any longer that it might reach a point of no return and that was a point she wasn't entirely comfortable passing.

Once his fingers reached her binder, she broke their kiss and tried to gather her wits. She let him explore while she moved her own hands away from his face and down his chest. She made it a point to avoid his eyes, knowing that what she saw in them might either scare her or excite her. There was a reason she started this. While she travelled her hands down she peppered his face and jaw with kisses to distract him. She felt him sigh and murmur something she didn't catch in response.

The Uchiha cupped her face, letting her bunched up shirt fall back into place and halting her ministrations. "Whatever it is you're trying to do won't work," he whispered in her ear.

Her blood ran cold. She could feel him grin as he nibbled on her ear. She was so close, almost there. Just a little bit lower and she could reach the key. The pinkette tried to ignore the trickle of doubt that entered her, that kept telling her that he was playing with her, that he really might be as cold blooded to let her believe that he actually might kind of like her.

She grit her teeth and let out an angry breath. She had no rights to feel angry with him since she wasn't doing this with the purest of intentions either, still it was a well needed reminder that what she was doing would be for the best, while it looked like all he did was try to fuck with her mind in the vilest of ways possible.

Sakura let one of her hands rest on the waistband of his pants while she moved the other in his hair. She put on a teasing smirk once he removed his face from her earlobe with a self satisfied grin. "Don't underestimate me, Madara. It one day might come back to bite you."

He wantonly sucked on his bottom lip, relocating his hands on her waist. She could see that despite his actions he was laughing at her, not believing her. "I'm not against biting."

That's exactly what she wanted to hear. She pressed her lips to his again. He instantly deepened their kiss and the pinkette had to battle him for control again. Once she got her chance she bit his bottom lip, nibbling on it, enjoying how he growled in response. She let her lips pull in a grin. He thinks he's so high and mighty. Oh, how she'll love to prove him wrong.

He might have caught on what was happening once her hand slipped past his waistband and moved towards his pocket, but it was too late by then. She didn't bother to search for the key in his pocket, she could feel it. She brought chakra to her hand and put enough force behind her touch to shatter the key. The effect was instantaneous. The strain on her chakra lessened and she could almost feel a mountain sized boulder roll off her shoulders.

Madara pushed her away, stepping back. She expected unabashed shock to be on his face, but instead it was anger. He didn't get a word past his lips before his form lost it's stability and dissipated in the air.

"For once you should have listened to me."

* * *

 _One chapter left._

 _Gods, I hope this wasn't shitty. It was one of the reasons why I was lagging so much with writing this - my fight with thinking that this is a steaming pile of garbage. I knew how I wanted for this chapter to end for the longest time, but during writing some details changed and I suddenly was stuck until I just powered through it with sheer determination._

 _Also thank you so much for all of your lovely reviews. I can't remember the last time I got so many on a single chapter. Thanks to Suzululu4moe, Guest, camelia-chan, Della-Avril, SectumSemprae and shadow miko. _

_I tried to do what I could to make it up for the long wait and hopefully the last scene (isn't clumsy or awkward) did just that. I don't know when I'll get the last chapter out. I know how half of it will go, but I still need to decide if I want to make this a happy ending, a bad one or a neutral one. Should Madara win or Sakura and so on. I've never gotten so far in my writing career to finish a story, so it'll be a real challenge to decide what to do for the ending.  
_

 _Thanks for reading._


	4. I'm Evil

_Finally we get to the part that inspired this whole story. Through the writing process it changed a lot, but the main idea still stayed there. Anyway, I hope that this was worth the wait.  
_

* * *

Three Akatsuki members were hot on her trail. Deidara up in the air and other two that covered the ground, possibly Kisame, judging from the massive chakra signature, which she remembered the best and maybe Hidan.

She leapt through the trees, trying to avoid being spotted by Deidara. Every now and then he'd drop a bomb or two down to where she was and she'd barely manage to avoid the explosion. This had been going on for five minutes at least. She knew if she stopped and fought she would have no chance at winning even with Hashirama at her side, who as he'd explained to her had a limiter put on him. She couldn't risk him getting damage and then poof. It was a pinch and her best chance was to run and try to hide, with Hashirama distracting the Akatsuki with various jutsu.

For half a year she'd been running from the Akatsuki, for half a year she's been away from her home, living like a missing nin. Pain hadn't taken to her "betrayal" that well. Once she managed to escape the Akatsuki hideout, after she broken Madara's key, Pain had noticed it immediately. After that it had been a clusterfuck of her trying to sneak her way out of Ame. Thankfully for her most of the Akatsuki members didn't give a crap about her, so they hadn't done much to stop her. She guessed that it was Pain's doing that the members a month later started coming after her whenever they crossed paths.

A huge explosion erupted behind her, creating wind of hot air. She spared a quick glance behind her to see dubious amount of wood move towards the explosion. Hashirama's doing obviously.

She dropped on the ground and waited for a moment until she saw the flashy red armour of the Shodai come into her view before she picked up her speed again, knowing that the ancient shinobi will catch up to her.

She manoeuvred between the trees, avoiding any sticking out roots. The scenery went by her in a blur, the wind from her run flowing through her messy locks and billowing out her cloak. She could tell that they were nearing the border of Iwa, the already small trees becoming a lot smaller and sparser.

As she predicted Hashirama caught up to her and matched his speed with hers. "Sakura-san, have you found a place to hide?"

Sakura grumbled, the notion of hiding again not sitting well in her stomach. "No, but we're closing in to the border. I'm sure once we cross there should be a cave or something."

He nodded and weaved his hands through a myriad of hand seals. Numerous roots shot up from the ground creating a huge wall and blocked a large wave of water she guessed had been Kisame's doing. "I have a proposition to make."

Both of them leaped to the side when an explosion blocked their path, sending chunks of earth and splinters flying everywhere. It was becoming increasingly difficult to lose the Akatsuki members in the trees. The unrelenting bastards, just her fucking luck of running into the three of them in that damn inn.

Sakura exhaled loudly through her nose and picked up her speed, Hashirama easily following her. "What is it?"

"You might not approve of this, but I think you should bring Madara in for this."

The pinkette stumbled, nearly falling face first on the ground. "What! Are you nuts? Of course I won't approve."

Another explosion rumbled behind them and Sakura could feel two signatures closing in on them. They were running out of time. If she wanted to avoid a fight she had to find somewhere to hide immediately. Sakura grit her teeth and pushed past her limit, feeling the burn in her calves. The mention of the Uchiha soured her mood way more than it already was.

The Shodai once again easily matched her speed, not even looking bothered by it. "Before you say anything else listen to what I have to say." He paused for a moment to make a seal and more trees sprouted from the ground, thickening the thinning forest. "You can't keep running for forever, Sakura-san and I can't protect you with the limiter in place."

"Just take it off then." She jumped over a large rock and from the corner of her eye saw Deidara up in the air, moulding a new explosive. Shit!

"I can't do it without it hurting you. I've said this multiple times, Sakura, but me releasing the limiter will harm you, you don't possess enough chakra to support me at full power."

Sakura grumbled, glaring his way, something she hadn't done towards him a lot, her respect towards the Shodai Hokage of the village preventing her from being outwardly rude to the older man. Sometimes she wanted to yell at him, a lot, but he tended to make good points and logic and respect made her keep quiet.

Hashirama continued, seemingly not noticing her seething. "But Madara can do it without hurting you. I've tried talking to him about it, but he won't answer me and it's been increasingly harder finding him in Limbo. I think he's angry at you."

The pinkette snorted. "Tell me something I don't know." Obviously the Uchiha was pissed with her, she gave him the biggest "fuck you" she could.

"I'm sure you have a lot to talk about and that there are things you want to ask him."

Sakura cursed at that, this time outwardly glaring at the Shodai. She and Itachi had been trying to piece together the puzzle, but there were so many pieces missing that the picture was unclear. Yes, she wanted to ask him questions if only to get information out of him and relay it to Konoha. "Still, that is not enough of a reason to bring that bitch back. I can quench my own curiosity if it halts whatever he was concocting up."

Hashirama's jutsu stopped and the trees completely thinned out, leaving them in a rocky terrain. "What I'm trying to say is that – and you must be aware of this as well – this won't stop Madara. I know my old friend fairly well and I can see when he's stuck in his ways. Madara has always been inventive in achieving his goals, especially when there is a setback. I'm proposing to you to bring him back under your control-"

An explosion of rock shards derailed their path and they both jumped to the right, taking the path towards a large fissure in the earth. Sakura cursed under her breath at the unrelenting Akatsuki members and quickly pivoted on her heel to stomp a chakra laden foot to the ground, creating a mini earthquake and large cracks that splintered. She picked back up the conversation, feeling her breath catch in her throat for a moment. "If you weren't aware then that didn't work out too well last time. I was made a fool out of by him and got dragged along like a fucking puppy. Not something I'd want to experience again."

The Shodai grinned. "Ah, but what if I told you that I can teach you how to sever his link to this world without the use of a key."

Sakura tripped on a rock that had been jutting out in a sharp angle, painfully stubbing her toes in the process. Before she could reach the ground with her face Hashirama caught her and immediately picked her up like a sack of potatoes to keep up their speed towards the fissure. She was too surprised by what Hashirama had said to protest the action.

The older shinobi continued. "I know that there isn't much I can say to change your mind about him, but I'm worried about Madara, Sakura. He's unable to find rest and move on, it's eating him. I'm upset with what he has done, yes, especially when I found out that he had lived on only to make more trouble. But for the past two decades he's been in Limbo I've been trying to get through to him." Hashirama exhaled loudly, creating a one handed seal that made the large boulder in front of them spit apart. "...but I'm afraid that I might be too close to the source of his distress for me to get through."

The pinkette listened to him speak while watching the white clay bird fly away from them. She breathed out in relief, sensing that one other member had ditched them as well. She guessed that Deidara retreated because of them entering Iwa and Hidan might have gotten bored, though from her time in the hideout she had found out that Kisame was one of the most loyal to Pain, so she found it as no surprise that he kept up the chase.

"Haruno-san?"

He put her back on the ground and Sakura immediately stumbled when pressure was put on her busted toes. She cursed and sent healing chakra towards her toes, picking back up their pace while healing her injury. "What is it?" She only briefly noted that he had called her by last name, which usually meant that he was being serious. She had a sinking suspicion that she won't like whatever he'll say.

"I'm asking you as a friend to bring Madara back and talk some sense into him. You've left an impression on him and I'm sure that he'll listen to you."

They jumped down into the fissure, that was a lot larger and deeper than it looked at first, softening the fall with chakra. Without any thought Sakura set the path towards the left, Hashirama following her. "You're giving me too much credit." He didn't know, she couldn't blame him. She never told him, out of embarrassment, all that had happened between her and Madara. Not once had the Uchiha listened to her, she wasn't sure about the impressions part, though. "If there's someone on this world who can talk to him it's you, Senju-san. I'm afraid that I'm simply just a hindrance to him."

The Shodai smiled knowingly. "Ah, but you don't know how he talks about you when you're not around, do you?"

Sakura smiled back, dubiously. "No, but is that even relevant?"

"The few times he came back to Limbo before his extended absence I over heard him saying some pretty interesting things about you. I don't think he meant to say them out loud, but it's sometimes hard to think straight in Limbo without talking to yourself..."

The pinkette noticed a deeper crevice in the wall of the fissure to her left and motioned with her hand for them to move there. Kisame hadn't followed them down in the fissure, but she could feel his chakra signature up above, nearing their position. "Your point?" Sakura questioned, almost impatiently. Hashirama had a tendency to go on tangents and then forget what he was trying to say from the beginning. It oddly reminded her of Naruto and at first she had found it funny, but after a while it grew old.

They slowed down their speed, now walking beside each other, almost shoulder to shoulder with how tight the crevice was. "Well, I think he likes you."

Her eyes went wide and she whipped her head to look at him. "What?!" She could feel her face heat up way more than it already was from her run, the stupid elephant that had been gone for half a year stumbled back in with his acrobatic performance. She cleared her throat and turned to look at the ground before them, avoiding the positively gleeful grin from Hashirama. "I doubt that he actually said that. You're just pulling that out from your ass."

"Now, now, Sakura, I know what I'm saying. You're right that he didn't say that outright, Madara knows how to hide his feelings well, but without a doubt he feels that way, judging from the way he kept analysing your every move and planning ways to get back at you after you'd apparently kissed him," he said the last part with a good natured laugh.

Sakura squeaked and couldn't help but hide her burning cheeks between her hands. "Oh my god!" All this time Hashirama knew and he hadn't said a thing until now. It seemed like he was talking about the first incident when she had pecked the Uchiha in desperation, thankfully it didn't look like he knew about what had happened much later on, thank god. This was so embarrassing. She hadn't told anyone about what she'd done with Madara and how she'd gotten rid of him so easily.

When she'd returned back to Konoha it had been unavoidable that she would have to explain everything in person. Tsunade had received her message and had relayed the information to the dHokage. Sakura had to fill in the blanks she had left in that message. It had been a long and gruelling process, she couldn't help but feel like she had been judged by everyone in the room. Naruto especially had been unrelenting with his questions. If she didn't know him she would think that he was calling her out on her bullshit regarding her connection with Madara on purpose.

In the end, though, she'd gotten punished and they all had agreed that it would be for the best if Naruto left the village, thus started the Kyūbi jinchūriki's extended stay at Mount Myoboku. Obviously the blonde hadn't been happy about such a decision, though it had been for the best, since a week later Pain and Konan had attacked Konoha. The damage done hadn't been that bad at first and once Pain heard that Naruto wasn't in village they had backed off. Of course everything hadn't gone so smooth. Apparently Pain had a rule set for the Akatsuki, which was that no member could leave the organisation alive. That had explained to her why some of the members stayed despite their obvious dislike towards Pain.

Because of her, because Pain had seen her between the medics, healing some of the injured shinobi, he had stayed and chased after her, resulting in vast damages done to the village. She had survived only because Tsunade, Kakashi and a few others from rookie nine had been near her, helping her fight off the Six Paths of Pain. The fight had finished only when Tsunade had helped her sneak away from harms way, telling her to run after that. Sakura hadn't liked that and neither did Tsunade, but in order to keep her and the village safe she had to go. Sakura had gone to Shikkotsu Forest, at least until it was safe to come back.

Obviously she hadn't gone back to the village, knowing that she was a danger to it now, she had decided to live as a missing nin, searching for clues to the mystery she and Itachi had discovered. She felt angry at Madara for bringing her into that mess and guilty that because of her the village had suffered as much as it did.

Hashirama broke her out of her musings by breaking the extended silence that had fallen between them. "I'm fairly sure that you can get through to him, Sakura. Men tend to listen to the women they fancy, you know. I'm saying this as a man who had a very strict wife."

The pinkette groaned, hiding her face in her hands in pure mortification. She doesn't want to think about this, she doesn't want to talk about this, especially if it's about Madara. She's pretty sure that Hashirama is seeing things that aren't there. "Please, can we not talk about this. I'll do as you say, alright, but please, please let's change the subject?"

The Shodai chuckled, patting her back. "I understand."

She didn't think he did, but she let it go, not wanting to touch upon the topic again.

For the next few minutes Hashirama quickly explained to her how she can forcefully close the door of a spirit and what his plans in getting rid of the looming Kisame was. Sakura mostly couldn't believe how easy it actually was to close the door, she couldn't believe that it had never passed in her mind to simply wave her chakra infused hand in the door closing motion to close it forcefully. Holy shit, knowing this a lot earlier would have saved her so much trouble.

She bit down the frustration with herself and watched as Hashirama closed his eyes, concentrating for something. Sakura was puzzled with this motion. He said that he was going to impersonate her and derail Kisame while she had agreed to try and bring Madara back. How was that supposed to help him cast a henge?

Chakra buzzed around him and Sakura watched in awe as he changed before her, morphed into something else. When he opened his eyes again Sakura belatedly realized that he had morphed into her. She winced. Did she really look like that? Hair frizzled, all over the place and in need for a trim, huge dark bags under her eyes, standard shinobi clothes with a few suspicious stains that looked a lot like blood and a ragged black cloak. Well, at least she looked the part of a missing nin.

"How do I look?"

The pinkette blinked as he pivoted around to showcase his change. "Y-your voice didn't change?"

"Ah, I can fix that." He weaved a few handsigns. "How about now?"

Sakura nodded, not really understanding what had just happened. "Good…?" Did her voice really sound like that? How could people listen to her and not get annoyed? "How...did...?"

He shrugged, making her worn out body look way more carefree than it should. "My form is made of chakra, so all I did was change it. Anyway, we'll continue as planned. Stay here and let me handle the shark man."

She once again stiffly nodded back as he made his way up the fissure wall. Once he was out of sight Sakura made her way back out of the crevice, masking her chakra in the process. Will Kisame even fall for this ruse? She had no clue, she could hope though. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache come on.

Now it was her turn to do her part. It irritated her that she actually even remembered how Madara's key looked like. If she didn't have a photographic memory she could have just told Hashirama that she's forgotten the appearance of the key and she wouldn't have to go through this asinine plan. Ugh, Tsunade hadn't been kidding when she'd said that her grandfather had been one crazy fella.

Sakura walked in a brisk pace, trying to find a place to hide into that wasn't claustrophobically narrow. The afternoon sun was blazingly hot and was in no favour in helping her cool off. She took a few steps to the left where the fissure walls were casting a shade. In comparison to Kusa's lush forests and lands of grass the land felt barren here, not as bad as Suna, but still eerie enough for Sakura to feel a bit uncomfortable. The large rocks didn't look welcoming at all with their sharp ends and odd shapes.

She'd been exploring for five minutes when she suddenly felt the strain on her chakra loosen. She swallowed thickly, feeling the dry air parch her throat. Picking up her pace she chose a random direction to turn to when she came to a crossroad. Kisame had gotten rid of Hashirama. She didn't know what to expect now. Considering how easily he'd fallen for their ruse, she guessed, hoped, that Kisame wouldn't come after her. There must be a limit to how much time he's willing to waste on her.

She swiped the sweat from her forehead and removed her cloak, feeling that if she doesn't she'll drown in her own sweat. The cool wind was a welcome relief to her flushed skin.

A grin split across her face when she came across an indent in the wall. It was deep enough to shield her from view if anyone was to come across the fissure. Putting her cloak on the ground where there weren't any sharp rocks or sand she sat down on it. The wind wasn't as strong here and she could already feel herself start sweating again. Removing her gloves she cleaned her clammy hands on her cloak.

Now, how is she supposed to do this? Does she simply call chakra to her hands and mould it? Or she needs to do the jutsu again? Damn, she should have asked Hashirama. Deciding to run with the first option first she called chakra to her hands, seeing the familiar green glow of it she started moulding it, similarly to how she solidifies her chakra scalpels.

Sweat started to trickle into her eye and she tried to blink it away, it was dividing her concentration. She could already see the key being formed, she was so close. Halfway through she nearly stopped everything from how annoying the heat had gotten. It wouldn't matter anyway if she didn't complete it, she didn't want the Uchiha back, she could just tell Hashirama that she did all she could and nothing came of it.

Before she knew it the black and red key was in her hand. She swiped her free hand across her forehead and let out a shuddering breath.

She had done it, she had remade Madara's key, effectively creating a new contract.

Suddenly the notion of seeing him again made her stomach twist in knots. She wasn't sure what to expect if she brought him back. Anger? Surprise? Indifference? The possibilities seemed endless, yet at the back of her mind she knew that he'll be angry and an angry Uchiha wasn't something she wanted to deal with.

She cursed Hashirama and his damn compassion towards Madara. Why couldn't he just let it go?

Instead of dwelling on it longer and cause herself unneeded anxiety she swung the key in the familiar half triangle motion and waited with a baited breath.

Nothing happened for a minute and Sakura let a relieved smile slip across her lips. He didn't want to come. She was saved from facing him for now. She fell back on the ground and swiped her face clean with her sleeve, letting the key drop from her hand.

"Well aren't you the perfect picture of grace."

Her eyes snapped open and she shot back up from the ground. There he was, back in his red armour like nothing had happened, arms crossed and an impassive scowl on his face. Like always he just had to make that surprise entrance.

"I would ask how you're doing, but I frankly don't care." The sarcasm was clear in his voice just as it was clear that he was still angry with her.

Sakura glared, turning to look at her sweaty hands. She didn't care if he made passive aggressive comments towards her or what he thought of her right now, her mission was to simply talk to him and that's it. Except she had no idea what to say to him, Hashirama had just dumped this on her without giving any starting points. In all honesty she would rather not talk to him at all, she's had enough experience around him to know that it'll leave her frustrated.

"Has the cat got your tongue?"

She raised her head again only to see that Madara had dropped some of his standoffishness, curiously staring her down. She licked her dry lips and swiped her sweaty palms on the knees of her pants. "Well, for starters you're here only because of your dear friend Hashirama, who, by the way, should have specified what the fuck he wanted from me." Her voice sounded scratchy even to her own ears.

"Hashirama?" Now the curiosity was in his voice.

Sakura swallowed trying to wet her dry throat. Why did she even listen to the ancient shinobi? This was a really bad idea. "It was his idea for me to bring you back, saying that you'd be better to protect me or some shit like that and that I should try and talk to you." The pinkette bit her lip and veered her gaze back to her hands. Now when she said it out loud it sounded stupid and she felt embarrassed just for saying it.

She heard ruffling coming from him and she peered up just enough to see him sit cross-legged across from her, while still keeping a considerable distance. "Now what would have given him the idea that after your backstab I'd would want to help you? You could be getting eaten by wolves at this moment and I wouldn't move a finger to help you in any way," he bit out, glaring at her.

"Oh, I don't doubt that. I didn't really want to see your stupid mug anyway," she grumbled the last part, cursing Hashirama in her mind for talking her into doing this. This must be the most hostile and awkward conversation she's ever had.

"Likewise."

Both of them fell silent after that and Sakura couldn't help but fidget in her spot from his heated glare, eventually mimicking his pose. It was surprising that he hadn't tried to physically harm her already considering how angry he was. If it was her in his place she wouldn't have even bothered to speak, just let her firsts do the talking. Sometimes his self control amazed her. Then again he might be trying to catch her when she least expects it and do some fucked up mind jutsu on her. Sounded a lot more like something he'd do.

Eventually he broke the silence. "You're not very far sighted, are you? Always acting on emotion and impulse..." Sakura felt her eye twitch, a stingy comment on the tip of her tongue, but he continued in the same condescending tone as before, "I bet you didn't even think things through before you followed Hashirama's orders like a little lost kid."

The corner of her mouth twitched, yet she kept it shut, knowing that he was right about that, saying anything would just be admitting that he was right about her, which he was, but he didn't need to know that. She has enough self caused self-hate to last a life time without him adding to it. She knew she wasn't perfect.

"What do _you_ want from me, Sakura? Why did you call me back?" he drawled, sounding bored and tired.

The pinkette swiped her greasy locks away from her face, suppressing the urge to growl. She had learned to hate that question. The circumstances were different now, but it still brought back memories that she wanted to forget. Still, she steeled her nerves and exhaled loudly. Well, if he, oh so graciously asked, she might as well dump all of her questions on him. "What were you doing with the Akatsuki? What was so important that you had to lock yourself away for hours?"

He chuckled and the sound surprised her, making her flinch. "That is of no concern to you."

Sakura frowned, but let it go for now, it wasn't the most pressing thing weighing her mind anyway. She had a feeling that he wasn't answering that just to spite her anyway. She decided to stop beating around the bush and just ask the question that had caused this whole situation from the very beginning. "Alright, then who hurt you so bad that taking over the world was the only solution to everything?" She had a small inkling of what the reason might be, since she did read all of those papers he had written and left around in her apartment, but most of them were really jumbled and made little sense.

Madara didn't like the question, it was obvious from how his usual frown deepened and he narrowed his eyes in displeasure. "That is not the case at all. You've been fed lies."

She laughed bitterly. "Well, you never told me shit, so how can I know. I make my own conclusions from what I know and if you don't like it, you can blame yourself for that." Oh, she definitely pressed some of the wrong buttons with that, he looked like he was ready to kill her on the spot just with his glare alone, which she didn't doubt he could once he would activate his sharingan. Still, Sakura smiled through it, wallowing in his irritation and how quickly she managed to get under his skin. Maybe Hashirama had been right about her having an affect on him. "What? Cat got your tongue?" She couldn't help but poke the hornet's nest more and throw his words back at him.

"I'm not obliged to tell you anything or explain my actions." He closed his eyes and visibly took a long breath, possibly trying to calm himself down.

Alright, he didn't want to talk about it, it must really be a touchy subject then, something she'll visit later. For now she'll continue winging it and keep him talking, he's bound to spill something eventually.

Sakura shrugged carelessly. "I was just askin', but anyway there are other things I want to know." She grinned wickedly, knowing that he's not going to like her next question at all. His guarded expression told that he's not liking this already. Truthfully she wasn't comfortable starting a discussion about this herself, but she had to know if she wanted to put her mind at rest. "What exactly where you trying to achieve before I broke your key? At that point you were gaining nothing by doing _that_ , yet you still indulged me." She leaned forward, placing her hands on her knees, keeping her smile on her face, while trying to battle the blush that was heating up her face and neck.

His posture visibly stiffened and he retracted his gaze from her to stare somewhere out in the distance. It didn't look like he was planning to respond, so Sakura leaned back and uncrossed her legs, splaying them out before her. He was contemplating things, yet he still didn't have an answer for her.

The pinkette giggled under her breath. Could it be? Was that a mistake on his part? All this time she had been agonizing over what he'd been trying to do when he'd kissed her back, while now it looked like it had been nothing, he'd kissed her back without any significant reason, effectively falling for her ruse. "So Mr. Perfect isn't so perfect at all, hahaha. I call that well deserved karma." It was about time _he_ messed up. She avoided thinking about the implications of that for now, her frazzled nerves wouldn't be able to handle it.

Madara turned back to face her just to throw a heated glare her way.

It only made Sakura's smile widen. This definitely was a part of him she hadn't seen, a part that humanized him more than anything else. She'd noticed how hard he'd tried to throw away any semblance of humanity, trying to perfect everything, yet something baser had won and ultimately let her get the upper hand. "You're still human like any of us and apparently horny to boot," she gloated, trying to push him past his limits. From the very beginning she'd been trying to break the visage of this intimidating person he put up, though that had went out the window when he'd started to pull her into his shenanigans. Now might be her chance to revisit that plan.

"I don't think you have any rights to accuse me of such things when you were the one to start it all in the beginning." She had obviously ruffled his feathers the wrong way for he started to place the blame on her in a very child like manner. Still, in a way he was right.

Her smile fell and she searched her brain for what to say to that. "Err...well yes, but it was all planned."

"That's a lie and you know it."

He got her there. It all had started from an impulsive action from her. Sakura licked her lips, feeling the dryness return to her mouth. "W-well...you aren't so innocent yourself, I might have started it, but you escalated it, which wasn't really needed."

He drew his lips in a flat line and once again drew his gaze away from her, finding more interest in the sharp rocks on the other fissure wall, staying silent.

Sakura downturned her head, biting her lip. Damn that elephant and her mouth for having no reins. _Way to make it awkward, Sakura._ Still, she didn't know if she should feel relieved or what that he wasn't as unaffected as he made himself to be. Now when she'd put it out on the table it appeared that both of them had been at fault for everything that had happened between them. With dejection, at the back of her mind, Sakura concluded that Hashirama indeed had been right about everything.

She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it no soon after and brought her legs back to herself, hugging them, while hiding her burning face. Could the ground just swallow her up already? The awkward silence is going to eat her up.

"If you have nothing else to say just send me back already." He sounded gravelly and muffled. Sakura removed her hands from her face only to see that Madara had leaned forward, holding his head in his hand, effectively hiding his face from view. A soft breeze ruffled his hair, making more strands than usual fall forward and shield him.

Her eyes widened. She had never seen him like this. Somehow that made her feel a bit less embarrassed. She cleared her throat and uncurled from herself, choosing to fist her hands in her cloak instead. "Nu-huh, we're not done yet." He didn't react to her words, so she chose to just continue with her questions. It was a really great way to keep her mind off the new implications she'd discovered. "Who is Tobi? And before you say that it's none of my business, I know that this Tobi was impersonating you, making deals and alliances under your name."

That earned her a peek from him through his gloved fingers. He didn't say anything for a while, removing his hand from his face instead. "There was a setback to my original plan."

Sakura raised her eyebrow. "Which is?" It wasn't the answer she had expected, but it revealed that that imposter was working with Madara. In a way it made sense.

"Do you really think that I'll just give my secrets away to you like this?" A small smile crossed his lips and it looked like he was back to his normal self.

The pinkette grumbled. "Why not?" He simply deadpanned at her. "I mean, I can tell you my biggest secret if that makes you more comfortable in sharing." She mock grinned.

"Your girlish secrets are of no use to me. Try harder." He returned her grin and she frowned in return.

"Then what the hell do you want from me?"

"Exactly, I don't want anything from you."

Sakura wanted to exclaim in frustration by this point. Did he have to be difficult? She'd been lenient when he didn't want to answer before, but three times in a row was too much. "Then just tell me, oh your Holy Greatness." She couldn't help the sarcasm that slipped out.

His grin fell. "The sarcasm isn't appreciated-"

But she cut him off, at the end of her patience. "Oh, I'm sorry for upsetting the Great Holiness, please accept my apologies."

If Madara had been any other person he would have rolled his eyes and it amused Sakura how hard he was trying not to. She knew she could be annoying if she wanted to and right now she wasn't afraid to use that skill to full power if it meant it gained her some answers.

"He died."

Sakura closed her mouth, the next snappy comment dying in her throat at his sudden answer. "Who?" She scrunched her brows. She had been thinking too hard about her next insult to really understand about who he was talking about and Madara didn't say anything else to clarify either.

 _He died_. Her eyes widened when understanding came to her. Tobi! That's what he meant by a setback to his original plan – his impersonator died. A harsh realization dawned on her and it felt like a ball of lead had settled in her stomach. If it hadn't been for her all of Madara's plans would have gone unrealized, abruptly put to a stop when Tobi died. But then she came into the picture and brought the man himself back, putting everything else back into motion. She had messed up much more gravely than she at first thought. A knot formed in her throat and she tried to swallow it.

The Uchiha raised his eyebrow, not understanding her sudden panic. "If you're done I'd like to go back. There are things I need to attend to."

She stiffly turned her head to him. Now she knew what Hashirama meant by it being hard to find Madara in Limbo and once again the other shinobi had been right – being away from the real world hadn't stopped the Uchiha from continuing with his plans, which he got to continue only because of her.

Sakura shook her head, trying to rid herself of the guilt that plagued her. It wasn't very successful, but she was burning daylight and she wanted to ask him one last thing before she needed to continue her way towards Kawa, a random trading village in Iwa she picked out to travel to.

She swallowed again and wiped her sweaty hands on her cloak. "One last question. Why did you want me to summon Hashirama? You obviously aren't very fond of him with how much you've been avoiding him, so why, why did you want me to create a contract with him as well?"

He smirked mischievously. "Because I thought that that would kill you."

She spluttered and blinked. "What is that supposed to mean!?"

He exhaled languidly like he was preparing to spell out something obvious that an oblivious kid. "Normally a single shinobi isn't able to create two contracts with two spirits, especially with someone like me and Hashirama. One tiny mistake and you would have died. You trying to summon Hashirama while I was around could have potentially killed you as well. I was hoping you'd be desperate enough to do it, though kudos to you for holding out."

"You shifty motherfucker!" She remembered how he'd told her that she has enough chakra control and reserves to handle it, while in reality he was hoping that she'd be dumb enough to try it and kill herself and worst part was that she was dumb enough, she just got lucky. And apparently Hashirama wasn't aware of this _little_ detail because he hadn't said a thing about it to her, then again Madara seemed to be much more well versed in this kinjutsu than Hashirama was. "So you were lying to me?!"

He waved his hand as if finding her comment ridiculous. "Not really, you do have great chakra control, I just didn't expect for it to be so perfect under such a pressure. You surprised me there, Sakura." He sounded honest, but by this point she was too angry to hear his praise.

She glowered and crossed her arms. Her fingers itched to hit something. "You are the most insufferable man I have ever met, you know that?"

That earned her a laugh from him and a good natured smile, something she hadn't expected to ever see from him again. "I have never been a fan of simple things."

"Understatement of the century," she grumbled. The fact that he had wanted to kill her honestly hadn't surprised her that much at all. She didn't understand how at that point in time her dying would have benefited him, but she had learned not to underestimate his planning abilities. She didn't doubt that there was still a lot of things Madara hadn't told her, the problem was that she didn't have an idea what those things might be and she knew that if she doesn't specify what she's asking for he won't give her a straight answer.

"Anything else weighing on your mind?" A hint of humour entered his voice and Sakura got the feeling that he was playing with her, gloating like the cheesy villains from some of the action films she's seen. It would explain why he's been so responsive to her questions – he's sure that he'll win, so he doesn't care if she knows about his plan or not.

She didn't like that smug look of his, it irritated her and made her feel like he's looking down on her, which he totally was, that jackass. She searched her mind for a quick insult to kick him down a peg, but she was drawing a blank.

He suddenly got up and the motion drew her gaze back to him. "I've been nice for long enough." Sakura froze when he advanced towards her, but he walked past her. "You got your silly questions answered and I'm done wasting my time with you." She turned her head to see him pick up the key she'd dropped from her hand. Her eyes widened when without any second thoughts he crushed it in his hand, the broken pieces disappearing into air.

"Wait!" She shot up from her spot and reached out to him. They made brief eye contact and then he was gone, dissipating into air. Sakura stood there mouth open and arm extended into the spot where just a few seconds ago he had been standing. "Fucking bitch!" she exclaimed in anger and kicked the dirt below her feet. So much for the plan of her keeping him tied to her. Apparently he had no need to stay in the real world any more. This had just turned for the worst.

Grumbling the pinkette pivoted on her heel and picked up her cloak, waving it around a bit to shake off the sand before she placed it back around her shoulders. It had darkened considerably and the sun wasn't as unbearable any more. She made her way out of the fissure and set her path towards Kawa.

It all happened so fast. It hadn't even passed her mind that Madara would try break his own key. Still, she got the message and creating another key will prove to be fruitless. On the bright side she at least managed to get him to talk. He wasn't willing to answer why he was doing all of this, the question that really had interested her, though she had gained other useful information. At least she didn't have to worry about a Madara impersonator running amuck.

Embarrassingly enough Hashirama had been right and it looked like the Uchiha did hold some affections towards her, though apparently that didn't amount to anything – he had his own priorities. It was such a mess. She didn't think she even wanted to know why he likes her, it already was such a contradiction to everything he does.

Sakura shook her head, trying to clear her mind from those thoughts. It seemed like she'll have to return to Konoha in the near future. Something huge was brewing and she wanted to be near her friends for when it exploded. She didn't doubt that Uchiha Madara will be responsible for it all.

Xxx

Just as she had predicted a month later all hell broke loose. All over the five shinobi nations there were news of the tailed beasts that had previously been captured by the Akatsuki destroying villages causing the relationships between the lands became more strained. Everyone threw the blame at each other, though Konoha got the most of it, even their allegiance with Suna became shaky. There were news going around about the fall of Akatsuki and worst of all – the return of Uchiha Madara.

Sakura didn't know how he did it, but he was back and apparently was causing causalities among the shinobi ranks of Kuma and Iwa. Obviously he had thrown any kind of caution to the wind, announcing his presence to the world. What was he planning to do by doing this? She had zero clue and it pained her to admit it, once again she was rendered useless, inadvertently staying as one of the causes of this chaos.

In the end Itachi had been right – a war was coming on.

And when on the subject of the elder surviving Uchiha she had a grim suspicion that his illness might have caught up to him. Sasuke had come back to the village, unchanged and still bitter. He didn't say anything, but she had a suspicion that he might have had an encounter with his brother. What exactly happened she, once again, had no clue and asking Sasuke about it would be met with no results.

"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Her thoughts were interrupted by Naruto, eyeing her worriedly.

Sakura blinked and schooled her expression into something less glum and faked a smile for him. "I'm fine, I'm just a little bit worried about our success." And rightfully so. Dealing with a tailed beast was no joke.

There had been news of the Yonbi entering the Land of Fire and before it reaches Konoha or any other major villages in the country the Hokage had assembled a team of shinobi to either seal the beast or veer it off course from Konoha in the worst case scenario. So far no one had been able to seal a beast and all attempts had been met with numerous casualties and that statistic was what worried Sakura.

The team the Hokage had put together consisted of Naruto as per his own request, Sasuke as the one with the biggest capability of trying to control the beast (past occurrences had proven that the sharingan has the ability to control the chakra monster), Yamato with his power to suppress tailed beasts and her as the medic in case something goes wrong and carrier of the sealing urn in case they manage to calm it down to seal it. They were considerably a small team, but Kakashi had enough trust in them to know that they'll get out of it alive if anything goes wrong.

"You have nothing to be worried about, Sakura-chan. I'll tell the Yonbi to stop attacking and everything will be fine, Kurama suggested it, so it should work."

Her smile wavered a bit. Leave it to Naruto to be overly optimistic. She didn't share his sentiments, but trusted him enough to at least try, after all he'd managed to make peace with his own beast, something no one believed to be possible.

Sasuke scoffed at their exchange, his thoughts about Naruto's plan obvious.

"I know the plan sounds horrible, but at least let him try. He's achieved crazier things." Yamato gave her a reassuring smile.

Sakura couldn't argue there. Naruto had the uncanny ability to persuade everyone. She didn't know what was his secret, but she wanted that ability, would have saved her a fuckton of time when she'd had to deal with Madara.

They were closing in on the beast, the roars of it telling as much. A sudden spike of very familiar chakra made her pause in her step on a tree branch, but Yamato was quick to notice her falling back and upon him turning his head to look at her she resumed her pace, catching up with him. She avoided looking at his odd look or explaining what had been her reason for stopping.

She had a really, really bad feeling about this.

The Yonbi reared it's head through the trees and all of them scattered to take their positions. She and Sasuke took the rear while Naruto and Yamato took the front. Yamato dropped to the ground and went through a flurry of handseals. Roots sprung up from the ground and blocked the gorilla beast's path while some other roots weaved around it's legs, eliciting a loud roar from it.

Sakura watched the scene from afar on a tree branch, Sasuke not too far from her.

The Yonbi broke through the roots, but as soon as it did new ones were in place. Naruto took that as his cue to near the beast, landing on a branch that was near eye level to it.

She paid no mind to what Naruto was saying the same chakra from before catching her attention again. She turned her head away from the scene to somewhere left to them, eyes narrowed as she tried to pinpoint the exact location of the chakra spike. Others seemed not to notice it, the massive chakra signature from the Yonbi overpowering everything.

Sasuke was mumbling insults towards Naruto and Sakura moved further away from him to concentrate.

"Sakura?" Her concentration was broken when Sasuke called to her, eyeing her with slight confusion.

She sighed rubbing her eyebrows that had started to hurt from her extended frowning. "I just have a really bad feeling about this."

"This isn't the best plan out there, I agree. They should've let me try to control it with the sharingan, so you and Yamato can seal it." He looked back to where Naruto was trying to talk to the beast, so far failing in every aspect and Yamato who was supplying the root bindings that the Yonbi kept tearing apart.

"That and I have a feeling like we're being watched." Sakura inclined her head back to the direction she last felt the chakra spike come from.

Sasuke activated his sharingan and followed her line of sight. "Whatever it is we'll deal with it as soon as it crosses our path."

Absently Sakura nodded and followed the Uchiha back to where they could safely jump into action with the Yonbi if the time were to come. She couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched, so she kept her senses expanded for any indication of movement.

The Yonbi had calmed down and surprisingly enough was listening to Nartuo. He must be telling some story for he had a huge grin on his face and was avidly emoting. Even the roots were gone, though the wooden walls with spikes Yamato had created while she hadn't been looking were still there.

She, Sasuke and Yamato stood in wonder, watching the blonde have a conversation with the beast. The biggest surprise was when it responded, its voice loud and clear.

For Sasuke the novelty wore off quickly and he was back to his usual self, scowling at the blonde and his success while Sakura caught herself searching for the familiar chakra again. She proved successful when the chakra spiked again. Her eyes narrowed. Now she had no doubts about who it is.

She pulled out from her pack the scroll that contained the sealing urn and shoved it into Sasuke's hands. Scandalised the Uchiha turned to her, but before he could open his mouth to protest Sakura cut in. "It looks like Naruto has it under control. There's something else I need to take care of. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes come after me." She took off only briefly hearing Sasuke call her name.

She's had a month to rethink her words and her choices and after a brief talk with the Shodai before she had to break the contract with him as per his request after she'd told him what Madara had said to her, she had promised that she'll try to do what she can to talk to Madara and solve this mess with the least amount of fighting. Honestly, she thought that Hashirama was a crazy idealist and was asking for the impossible from her as fighting was unavoidable at this point, but she had promised to try her best and her guilt wouldn't allow for less.

Wind whipped her face from the speed she was going in, though thankfully the chakra signature in front of her wasn't moving as fast. No doubt he was expecting her to catch up to him. She grit her teeth when she saw him waiting for her in a small clearing. She descended from the tree branches to the ground on the opposite side of the clearing from him.

She narrowed her eyes, clenching her fists. Madara looked different and it wasn't just the outfit change to something more from her time. He wasn't as pale and she couldn't put her finger on it, but he looked less translucent from when she last remembered him if that even made sense. Only conclusion: he wasn't a spirit anymore.

"I didn't think you'd follow me all the way," he commented offhandedly while roaming his eyes over her tense form.

She took a step forward glowering furiously. "Fight me!" The will to talk went right out the window. She's been doing nothing but talking and it has bared no results. It was time to change tactics and maybe she was just a tiniest bit angry and wanted to punch stuff. She knew she was no match to him, but she'll be damned if she didn't at least try.

Madara deadpanned. "Leave, Sakura."

She bristled. "Why? You took out any other shinobi team that you came across. Why aren't you going to fight me?"

"There's no point in fighting a pathetic, weak kunoichi."

He turned to leave and Sakura felt the edge of her mouth twitch. She pulled out a kunai from her pouch and aimed it at the back of his head, enhancing the throw with chakra. He easily avoided the kunai and it lodged itself hilt deep into a tree. He turned his head to glare at her. She licked her lips and pulled out another kunai. "Fight. Me," she repeated by emphasising each word just in case the message wasn't clear enough and lunged forward.

The Uchiha didn't even flinch when she sent a punch to the ground, causing ruptures and uprooting a tree. The terrain became uneven and she jumped onto the highest moving mass of earth to pounce on Madara, kunai extended.

He easily avoided her attack and snarling she pivoted on her heel and almost blindly swung her chakra enhanced fist. Each time she swung he stepped back with an amused look on his face. She aimed a high kick for his head to switch things up. He caught her ankle and threw her back by it, staggering her stance.

Him knowing all of her moves from back when they used to spar was doing no favours to her. Righting herself she lunged at him again with a chakra punch, while with her other hand she pulled out a kunai with and explosive tag attached from her pouch.

Just as she predicted he avoided her deadly punch and she used that chance to throw the explosive tag kunai, detonating it mid throw. The heat from the blast nearly singed the tips of her hair. Their close proximity to each other made the use of explosives dangerous for both of them, but Sakura didn't care.

A small smirk made it's way to her face while she absently healed the few burns she'd sustained, when the smoke of the explosive dissipated in the wind and it revealed that Madara had activated his mangekyou sharingan to protect himself with the ribcage of his Susanoo from the blast that had been considerably closer to him than her.

"This is a dangerous game you're playing. Do you think you're ready for it?"

No she did not, but she didn't care. She wasn't fighting to win, she was fighting for herself, she was fighting to let out all of her frustrations and grievances towards him. She didn't care that he was holding back on her, that he was underestimating her. She'd already achieved way more than she ever did during their spars by making him activate his mangekyou with her risky move.

She ignored his teasing smile and went for it again using the uneven ground as jumping platforms.

He was confident enough in his abilities to veer her off that he released his defence, the blue ribcage dissipating.

She called chakra to her hands and solidified it in sharp scalpels. This time Madara didn't avoid her slashing punches, instead each time she was about to connect he deflected them by pushing on her wrists. Sakura jumped back, pulled out three poison laden senbon from her pouch and threw them at Uchiha. He finally moved from his position to avoid her projectiles to land on one of her upturned pieces of earth.

She wasn't too far from the tree she uprooted, so using her enhanced strength she picked it up by the trunk and swung it like a bat, sending leaves and branches splaying around.

Madara avoided her large field sweep by jumping up on a tree branch.

She wasn't planning to give him room to breathe and threw the large tree his way. Maybe the tree won't hit him, but the crown of the tree was huge enough that at most he'll get scraped by branches. Her hope was naught for he evaded the tree by landing back on the ground. Sakura glowered, but then grinned as the huge tree had no balance and was falling back to the ground.

All this time he'd been simply avoiding or deflecting her attacks, obviously finding her attempts at fighting not worth fighting back. This time he didn't avoid the tree trunk and instead manifested his susanoo again and with it's single arm swatted the tree away.

As soon as the tree was out of the way Sakura lunged at him fist propped back for one of her deadly punches. Her fist connected with the ribcage of his susanoo, creating cracks on it.

He swatted her away just like he did of the tree and she went flying into a tree. She gasped her breath being kicked out of her. She barely had time to regroup her wits before a hand was pressing down to her throat, pinning her to the tree she'd slammed into.

"Leave." His eyes were hard, voice low and he clearly was done playing with her.

She glared at him and placed her hands on his. She sent a chakra scalpel through his hand, but it garnered her no results. He didn't react to the injury. Sakura swallowed. Was he really human? He definitely was warmer than before.

His irritation with her grew and he pressed harder on her throat, nearly blocking her windpipe.

"Why can't you just fight me?" she gasped out, knowing that if he did fight her she most likely wouldn't come out of it alive. The power difference between them was gross and she almost out of spite wanted to wish it gone just so she could fight him fairly.

"I'm tired of scuffling around with shinobi who can't even pose a challenge and you're no different from them."

She raised her hand to punch him, but he quickly pinned it to the tree near her head. "Then just kill me." She knew that she was playing with danger here, but her frustration with how weak she was had reached peak levels. She wasn't even able to touch him with her hits and that was all she wanted from this – a one solid hit on the Uchiha who has been the core reason for her turmoil. She bit down the need to cry. If only she could break free her hands and form the right hand seals to incapacitate him with her medical jutsu.

She blinked away her tears when she saw his stormy and conflicted expression. He was hesitating and made no move to follow up on her request. It was her saving grace from falling fully into despair – watching him struggle with understanding his own emotions. She had made piece with her own emotions a while ago, realizing that it had been nothing but lustful attraction that didn't amount to anything, even if she did kind of enjoy their antagonizing relationship. She didn't know his reasons for liking her, but she wasn't worrying about that 'cause it looked like he didn't know them himself.

He squeezed her hand harder and in turn she dug her fingers into the injury she'd created, getting blood all over her hand. This time he flinched from the pain and Sakura smirked in return.

"What is it you want, Madara?" she echoed the question he'd asked her the first time he'd caught her struggling with her emotions. She fully enjoyed the turnaround and how it looked like it had served to annoy him further. Sweet, sweet retribution.

He narrowed his eyes. "I'm not going to fall for your emotional manipulation."

She returned the gesture and dug her fingers deeper into his wound, earning her a grimace from him. He just indirectly admitted that he'd been manipulating her emotionally, using her feelings for his own gain. Motherfuckin bitch! "Oh, I see how it is. When it's me who has to bare all of myself to you then it's fine, but when you have to do it then I'm suddenly in the wrong. Fine. I have no problems admitting that I liked you and kept you around because of that, that I kissed you first because I subconsciously wanted to do it."

His hold on her became weaker, but his gaze never wavered, red sharingan eyes bore into her green ones. She waited for him to speak, but he never did. The sound of wind ruffling the leaves was all that she was met with.

Sakura clicked her tongue and averted her gaze to where she was digging her fingers into his flesh, the blood had soaked his sleeve and was still running from the wound, even running down her arm. "For someone who claims to be honest you have an awful time being honest to yourself." She raised her head back to meet his considerably less heated glare. She smirked, feeling her confidence come back. "If anyone is pathetic here then it's you, Madara. I don't need god levels of strength to admit that I have done wrong, that I have been a horrible person in the past and that I had feelings for a douche like you. Being stupid powerful doesn't fix anything and it certainly won't fix the world like you have imagined."

He leaned closer to her and for a moment her heart did a flip. What is he going to do now? He didn't look angry, but she was still afraid to see how he would react to her words. "When no one is willing to do anything to change things, I have no choice but to do it. Nothing you've showed me so far has proven to me that the world has changed from how it was during my time."

She almost chuckled and shook her head at how he was avoiding the main issue here. Still, she went along with it if only to try and get to the bottom of his strong wish for world piece. "You haven't seen everything, the world has changed from the Warring era. It's not perfect yet, but hey change takes time and a lot of work, but I can assure you that we are changing."

He reclined back, lip curled up in what she guessed was distaste. "People are too greedy and self-serving to change. I've seen three wars pass and after each one nothing had been solved. We still kill each other, we still lose our loved ones to war and petty conflicts. Everything is made out of pain, suffering and emptiness."

Sakura relieved the pressure from his wound. "You know, you sound like a hypocrite when you say that."

Unlike her the Uchiha didn't release her and instead removed his hand from her throat to pin her other hand to the tree. She didn't protest the action either, too curious to see what his next move will be. She's been pretty upfront with him even going as far to insult him, but he hadn't retaliated to her yet, which she found to be odd. There was no way he was going to just take all of her shit talking laying down, she's had enough experience around him to know that she's gonna get burned for being lippy.

When he neared her again, being almost face level to her, her heart did another flip. He snarled. "This started with a war and it's going to end with one."

She inclined her head to the side, smiling bitterly. "You're awfully negative for someone wishing for something so pure. What happened to cause that?"

He returned her smile. "You really want to know that badly?"

The pinkette averted her gaze for a moment. "Well, there must be a reason why you're acting like a nutso and believing that world piece is achievable with violence and enslavement to some stupid tree."

His expression turned to something more sardonic. "I lost everything I had to a frivolous conflict – my family, the trust of my clan and a friend. Worst part yet is that I can't even remember why we were fighting in the first place. No one should suffer through something like that, no one should lose their family to war. That's why I decided to put a stop to it by any means necessary."

She let out a short laugh and shook her head. "You should've told me sooner."

"Why? So you can pity me? I don't need your fucking pity."

She raised her head again to meet his heated gaze dead on, frowning. "No, you dingus. If you told me sooner maybe then I would have understood you better."

"I doubt that."

She sighed. Madara was a lost cause. He's been in this mindset for years. Hashirama put too much hope into him. She understood that pain of losing loved ones wasn't easy to overcome and that constantly being one against the world was a tough situation to be in. Still, she had to condemn him for seeking for something positive, to try and rid others of the pain he had to suffer. Too bad that his past had corrupted him and made him see that the only way to achieve that is through war and putting everyone in a dreamworld. "Nothing I say will change your mind, will it?"

He released her arms and took a step back from her. "Just because our opinions differ I won't quit what I had started, even if by some chance you are right."

Sakura rubbed her wrist that had gone numb from the pressure he'd been putting on it. "I am right and you're going to fail because the world has changed, I can assure you that and when you fail I want you to remember that I told you so."

Suddenly he was near her again, her chin between his fingers, a lazy smirk on his face. "I'll be waiting, for if the time comes for you to say that to me in person."

The pinkette shuddered and wanted to move back, but her back was already against the tree. He wanted for her to prove him wrong, but not without a fight. Did she actually kind of got through to him? He definitely seemed different from when she first met him, a lot less grumpy and with less hatred in his eyes. What he was saying to her now differed greatly to what he had written down in his memory papers.

She opened her mouth, but he silenced her and pressed his lips to hers, catching her by surprise. His hand that had previously been holding her chin moved to the side of her face, angling her a bit to the side. She thought she'd gotten rid of the elephant when she'd come to peace with what she'd felt, but apparently she'd been wrong because it was back. Her heart thrummed in her ears and she sighed letting him access to her mouth. Something felt different about this time and it wasn't the difference of him now being human. He was a lot gentler than all of the previous times and not as domineering. Why was he doing this?

She was about to snake her hand into his hair when he pulled back, a cocky smirk on his face. She cursed those damn Uchiha genes and how attractive she found that smile to be.

"It's because you're smart despite your impulsive decisions and because you're not afraid to speak your mind."

She scrunched her eyebrows and was about to ask him what he meant with that, but he quenched whatever she wanted to say with another kiss that she found hard to resist. Though this time he ended it a lot faster and Sakura had to fight back a whimper at that.

"And because you're a better person than me," he whispered and stepped back from her, letting her go.

Dumbstruck she watched him for a moment, opening her mouth, but no words came out. She touched her lips with her fingers, still feeling the tingles. When she looked back up he was gone. She was alone in the clearing.

What did just happen? He complimented her and not in that offhand way he sometimes did. Uchiha Madara just genuinely complimented her while kissing her. What did it even mean?

"Sakura-chan, there you are." Her awestruck musings got cut off by the boisterous voice of Naruto. He landed in front of her. She saw how his eyes strayed to her bloodied hand and in turn widened. "Are you hurt? Who hurt you, Sakura-chan?" He assumed an attack stance and rabidly scanned their surroundings.

Sasuke and Yamato joined them, dropping near Naruto. "Relax, it's not her blood." Sasuke glared at the hyper blonde.

"How do you know?" The junchuriki turned to the Uchiha with a scandalised expression.

He didn't say anything to that, instead motioned with his head to her.

Suddenly all eyes were on her and she lurched, breaking out of her stupor. She laughed sheepishly and waved the bloodied hand around. "Haha, it's alright, Naruto, Sasuke is right, it's not my blood."

Naruto was back on her. "Then whose blood is it? Where you fighting someone?"

Sakura nervously smiled. She appreciated his worry about her, but he was being a bit too obnoxious about it and nosy. "It's nothing to worry about, I took care of it." She hid the stained hand behind her back for now. "Anyway, how did it go with the Yonbi?"

This time Yamato stepped up, giving her a disapproving stare. "You left in the middle of an important mission, Sakura and I want an explanation."

She swallowed and bit her lip, avoiding looking at any of her teammates. "I told Sasuke that I felt a presence near us, so I went to inspect it in case it might be an enemy shinobi planning to ambush us."

"And?" The blonde butted in, urging her to go on.

"I, uh, took care of it." She showed her bloodied hand again as proof, smiling weakly.

It didn't look like Yamato believed her, but he sighed and uncrossed his arms. "Next time, inform your team leader if you're going to leave. I would prefer for you not to leave at all, but telling you guys what to do never seems to work out too well. You're lucky that we managed to handle it with no serious incident."

Sakura perked up. "So you captured it?"

Yamato shook his head somberly. "No, it walked away. One moment Naruto was talking to it and the next it just turned around and walked away."

"Yeah, it was weird. It was like he suddenly got possessed or something," Naruto added, frowning.

"Anyway, we can say that the mission was a success and that the Yonbi has left the Land of Fire for now." The brunette rubbed the back of his head with a sigh. "I kinda wish that it was forever, but that would be wishful thinking." He dropped his hand and gave her one last look. "Let's head back, team."

Naruto and Yamato jumped back up in the trees and Sakura was about to follow, but something made her pause. Sasuke was looking at her, eyes narrowed and arms crossed. All through their conversation he'd been the quietest. He didn't say anything and she couldn't help but think that he knew more than he let on.

Sakura smiled awkwardly, hiding her hand behind her. "C'mon, let's head back, Sasuke-kun."

"Hn." He dropped his arms and jumped up into the trees, following Naruto and Yamato.

Sakura sighed, relaxing and putting her hand to her chest. That had been way too close. She looked at the drying blood on her hand and bit her lip. Madara's parting words still confused her, cryptic in their message and delivery. In the end she wasn't fully able to convince him to drop his Eye of the Moon plan, though she had a feeling that she had managed to convince him of something else.

The pinkette shook her head, forgetting everything about their parting message for now and jumped up in the trees to follow her teammates. Only when she'd managed to catch up to them she realized why the Yonbi had retreated so abruptly.

Madara was advancing his plan.

Xxx

For the past month the promise of a war came true, but it hadn't been the kind of war everyone had been expecting. Instead of the nations going against each other like it had had happened in the past, they had been pushed to unite for an army of White Zetsus had emerged, attacking indiscriminately. Another big benefactor to the union had been the fear inducing name of the army's leader – Uchiha Madara.

The tailed beasts had disappeared, there even were news of the death of the Shichibi and Hachibi jinchuuriki. The odds had been stacked against Naruto and they tried keeping him safe, but the stubborn blonde didn't listen and had fought with them on the front lines.

Sakura didn't like wars and she especially hated participating in them, but her skills as one of the best medics in the world had been required on the battlefield. That's how she spent most of her time – on the front lines, healing injured shinobi and fighting off White Zetsu's that had dared to come close. It hadn't been a desirable life.

They days dragged on until on the third day a huge beast had appeared, the Juubi, forcing them to defend against its uncontrolled attacks. At that day Madara made his appearance, announcing his plans to everyone.

Majority of the Shinobi Forces divisions had been present, but it wasn't enough to stop the chakra monster. Even the five Kage had gotten involved and Sakura could only watch in awe as Madara fended against all of them at once.

Even as his plan had been unfolding right before her eyes, she still didn't know a lot of details concerning it. She had no idea how he'd been able to form the Juubi without the Kyuubi and she didn't know how Madara had been able to become human again and gain rinnegan, but she had an awful suspicion that it had to do something with Pain and the fall of Akatsuki.

While she had been fighting off the Juubi using Katsuyu-sama alongside her peers Sasuke and Naruto with his clones had vanished from the battlefield. In that moment Madara had fought off the Kage and sealed the Juubi into himself. Everything was happening so quickly that she barely had time to mull it over. One moment she had been fighting against a huge chakra monster and the next it was gone, replaced by a changed, white coloured Madara.

They had made brief eye contact at that moment and as a smile fell over his lips she had realized that this was it, he was one step away from making the dream world come true. She had steeled herself prepared to take him on her allies alongside her, promising herself that she'd do everything in her power to prove him wrong, but Naruto and Sasuke had come back, seemingly out of thin air, their chakra signatures different.

The following battle had been hard fought, something Sakura couldn't even participate in from how fast paced it was. Sasuke had gained a rinnegan to match Madara's and Naruto had had the power of the Sage of Six Paths. Madara was able to match up against both of them, seemingly winning and Sakura knew that if something wasn't done to help out Naruto and Sasuke Madara will win. Except she hadn't known what to do. White Zetsus were increasing in amount and an enormous tree had started to sprout from the ground.

It was then when a Naruto clone had explained to everyone around that he will try to extract the tailed beasts from Madara, so they should concentrate on getting rid of the White Zetsus that hadn't been decreasing in amount. Sakura had activated her baykugou seal at that moment, prepared to jump into the fray, summoning a larger part of Katsuyu-sama.

Madara had been a jinchuuriki at that moment and by extracting the Juubi he would die. It sounded so simple when Naruto had said it, in reality it hadn't been so easy to achieve, especially when no one other than Naruto and Sasuke were able to damage Madara at that moment. The biggest surprise had been when Might Guy of all people had stepped up and actually had managed to deal damage to Madara by opening the Eight Gate.

After Guy's use of Night Guy, which had left Madara wounded it was their turn to pull out the Juubi's chakra from Madara, while Naruto worked on releasing the beasts. Sakura couldn't believe when they had been successful and the tailed beasts had been freed.

Immediately after that she had had made her way to them, avoiding the beasts that had formed back and other shinobi, only stopping when she was next to Sasuke and Naruto. There was one last thing she had to do, something she had promised to do.

Sasuke had charged chidori in his hand, ready to put an end to the already dying Madara.

"Sasuke wait!" she had called, putting a hand in front of him to stop him from advancing.

He had been annoyed and had given her the same suspicions stare as before, but had followed her request nonetheless.

"Sakura-chan, what are you doing?" She had ignored Naruto's question and had crouched down to where Madara was laying on the ground.

His breaths had been shallow, eyes closed. By appearance he hadn't looked damaged apart from a few scrapes and the tiredness on his face. She had never seen him look so weak, so beaten and worn. "You were right." His voice had been quiet, barely audible, but she'd been close enough to hear it.

Sakura had smiled somberly, chuckling. "I told you so." She had ignored the odd stares she had received from her teammates. No doubt there will be a lot of questions she'll have to answer.

He had opened his eyes halfway and when he'd given her a weak smile Sakura couldn't help but return it. At that moment she had almost wished that things wouldn't have had ended like this, that she should have been able to talk him out of this sooner. But she supposed that changing the ways of a stubborn Uchiha had never been in her power.

In the end she had won, she had won the little battle they had been having between them. It hadn't come without its sacrifices and grievances, but she could at least say that she had redeemed herself and learned her lesson, changing as a person in the process. In a way Madara had changed as well.

* * *

 _And now I can officially say that I have finally finished a multi-chaptered story for once. I'm sorry if the ending is kind of meh, I honestly don't like retelling the canon, so it was super hard for me to write. Also keep in mind that I'm only a single person, so I can't remember everything (even when I'm balls deep into the Naruto wiki I'm sure I missed some stuff) or think of every possible scenario and then cover it. I know that there are some questions that were left unanswered, so if you're curious just ask me._

 _This story in general was never about the plot, but the characters, like if you noticed then I pretty much only retold some of the plot stuff while keeping the interactions. It's something I personally have more fun writing, plus I didn't want to drag this story out, considering that I had no plan for this. idk how well I did with the characters, though. I'd say that Madara did have some development and in general I made him a bit more reasonable than he was in the canon, but Sakura feels like someone who didn't change all that much through out the story.  
_

 _In the end I settled for a Sakura wins scenario as most of you guys wished, though I left it kind of bittersweet. Some of you wanted for Madara and Sakura to end up together, but you must understand that considering the circumstances that wouldn't have been possible. But hey there's always the possibility of Sakura bringing him back as a spirit again as long as she remembers how his key looked like._

 _I also want to give a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed, especially to WickedWitchInTheNorth for reassuring me that this story is still loved and that there are people out there who want to see it finished. That gave me a big boost of confidence and start planning out this chapter.  
_

 _I'm going to start working on a MadaSaku one shot for MultiSakuMonth, where MadaSaku coincidentally fell into my birthday, so hopefully that's what you'll see next from me._


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